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Women’s History Month puts spotlight on Maine people and places

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Women’s History Month puts spotlight on Maine people and places


Actor Danny Kaye, left, with U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine and actor Jimmy Stewart during the 1955 Overseas Press Club dinner. Photo courtesy of the Margaret Chase Smith Library

It’s not hard to localize Women’s History Month in Maine. You can start by learning about some of the amazing women from Maine who’ve left their mark on politics, literature and various other fields.

There’s Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan, the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the the classic anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” while living in Brunswick. Frances Perkins retreated to her home in Newcastle when she wasn’t helping reshape American labor laws as Secretary of Labor under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

There are also local self-guided tours and guided tours of sites important in the history of women in the U.S., as well as reading lists at Maine libraries and other events. Women’s History Month is celebrated annually in March.

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TRAILBLAZERS

The Portland Women’s History Trail is divided into seven self-guided walks around the city, and introduces people to women from two centuries of history. The trail’s website features maps, routes and descriptions of each site. The Congress Street Walk, for example, highlights women at work and in the arts. One of the sites is the Curtis & Sons Chewing Gum factory on Fore Street (now Hub Furniture) where young women toiled in the late 1800s. Another is the Exchange Street building where Gail Laughlin (1868-1952), a prominent lawyer and suffragist, had her office in the early 1900s. The Congress Street walk also includes the “Little Water Girl” statue inside the Portland Public Library, which honors Lillian Ames Stevens (1844-1914), the second president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

Several sites on the Munjoy Hill walk focus on the homes of individual women, including Hattie Branch (1898-1995), a Black woman who worked at Union Station and as a housekeeper, and Edith Beaulieu, who raised her family on the hill while serving in the state Legislature in the 1970s and ’80s. There are also walks covering Gorham’s Corner, State Street, Stevens Avenue, Stroudwater and the West End. The walks range in number of sites from less than a dozen to about two dozen.

First Parish Church in Portland is one of the sites on the Congress Street walk of the Portland Women’s History Trail. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Embark Maine Tours in Bath runs a guided tour of women’s history in the City of Ships. The one-mile walking tour focus on the lives of women in Bath, from varying backgrounds, who stepped into public life between 1850 and 1920. One story shared on the tour is about Annie Hayden writing to her sweetheart Thomas W. Hyde (later founder of Bath Iron Works) in September of 1862, asking about his injury at the battle of Antietam during the Civil War. People on the tour also learn about Mary Heuston, an enslaved woman from South Carolina, brought to Maine in 1850 during a family vacation to care for children. With the help of the local African American community, Heuston self-emancipated and lived in Maine until her death in 1913. Tours are 90 minutes, cost $25 per person, and are scheduled this month for March 22 and 29.

A women’s history tour group in Bath, in front of a home shared by Annie Hayden Hyde and Thomas Hyde. Photo courtesy of Embark Maine Tours

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FIRST THINGS FIRST

Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress, as a member of the House of Representatives from 1940 to 1949 and the Senate from 1949 to 1973. She gained national attention in 1950 for denouncing the methods used by Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy in his anti-communist crusade, in what came to be known as her “Declaration of Conscience” speech. At the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, people can schedule appointments to tour the archive, museum and public policy center. There are documents, awards, photos and other memorabilia from her political career. At some point in the spring, the library will likely resume normal operating hours, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A painted portrait of Margaret Chase Smith hangs within the former U.S. senator’s homestead in Skowhegan, where, in an attached library, there is a section devoted to her unsuccessful presidential run in 1964. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve in a U.S. president’s Cabinet, as Secretary of Labor under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945, and is recognized as the driving force behind such transformational New Deal measures as Social Security, the 40-hour work week, child labor laws and the minimum wage. When not in Washington, D.C., she lived at her family’s longtime home on River Road in Newcastle, which was declared Maine’s second national monument last year. Right now, people can walk the trails and grounds of the Frances Perkins National Monument, and see the house from the outside. This summer, the staff plans to open the self-guided exhibit about Perkins in the property’s historic barn, with a gift shop.

The Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, the site of Perkins’ longtime home. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

THE WRITE STUFF

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick is where the influential anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852) was written. It’s also where Stowe sheltered John Andrew Jackson, a formerly enslaved man seeking his freedom. People can see the room where Stowe wrote in the house, which is now owned by Bowdoin College and also houses faculty offices. The house is open most Thursdays and Fridays from noon-3 p.m., as well as by appointment. The house also hosts talks about Stowe’s life, and staff may do historical walks around Brunswick once the weather is warmer.

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The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The Portland Public Library has created a reading list for Women’s History Month, with a focus on contributions women have made to the nation. A few of the titles include: “Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion” by Michelle Dean; “The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote” by Elaine F. Weiss; “Modern HERstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History” by Blair Imani; “A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women who Desegregated America’s Schools” by Rachel Devlin; and “The Women of Hip-hop” by Sheila Griffin Llanas. The list has a total of 29 titles and can be found on the library’s website.



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This Classic New England-Style Cottage in Maine Has 200 Feet of Atlantic Ocean Frontage

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This Classic New England-Style Cottage in Maine Has 200 Feet of Atlantic Ocean Frontage


A waterfront home with open ocean views on the coast of Maine came to market Tuesday asking $4 million. 

Built in 1978, the three-bedroom cottage is at the southern point of Cape Elizabeth, less than 10 miles from downtown Portland. The 1.1-acre property on Sunny Bank Road features 200 feet of south-facing water frontage on the wide open Atlantic. 

It is bordered by a rocky sea wall that’s about 28 feet high, according to listing agent Sam Michaud Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty

“The views are like a Monet painting,” he said via email. “The water sparkles and the waves are endless.”

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MORE: Laid-Back Costa Rica Is Getting a $7 Million Mega-Penthouse

The 3,364-square-foot home was built in classic New England style, with shingle siding, a single sloped roofline and large windows—complemented by white-washed walls, exposed-beam ceilings and wide-plank flooring on the interiors. 

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The main common area features cathedral ceilings with a step-down between the living and dining room, and a partial wall divides the dining room from the kitchen. There is also a wood-paneled family room off the kitchen, a gym and a covered porch. 

The sellers purchased the property in 2010 for $1.562 million, according to property records accessed through PropertyShark. They could not immediately be reached for comment. 

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“I have received quite a few inquiries since hitting the market two days ago,” Michaud said. “Buyers understand that this is a golden opportunity to own over an acre with 200 feet of bold oceanfront in Cape Elizabeth.”

MORE: Iranian Strikes on Dubai Put the City’s Roaring Real Estate Market to the Test

There are currently just seven three-bedroom homes available for sale in Cape Elizabeth and fewer than five waterfront properties, according to Sotheby’s and Zillow data. It is also the most expensive listing in the town, with another waterfront property on a tiny lot just south of Portland coming in a close second, according to Zillow. 

Michaud sold the former Cape Elizabeth home of Bette Davis this past summer for $13.4 million, the priciest sale on the cape in at least a decade—and even those views can’t compare. They’re “just magical,” he said. 



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NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion

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NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion


Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.

In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.

As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.

The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.

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Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.

Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”

After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.

Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.

In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.

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First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.

Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.

Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.

Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.

If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.

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Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition

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Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition


For a lot of people throughout Maine, there’s some built up frustration that they’ve just been keeping inside.

That frustration can come in a lot of different forms. From finances to relationships to the world around you.

So it makes plenty of sense that a rage room opened in Portland, Maine, where people can let some of that frustration out.

It’s called Mayhem and people have been piling in to smash, crush and do dastardly things to inanimate objects that had no idea what was coming.

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But Mayhem has realized not everyone is down with swinging a sledgehammer. So they’ve decided to cook up something new.

Mayhem Creating ‘Scream Room’ at Their Space in Portland, Maine

Perhaps the thought of swinging a baseball bat and destroying a glass vase brings you joy. The thought of how sore your body will be after that moment makes you less excited.

Mayhem Portland has heard you loud and clear and is developing a new way to get the rage out. By just screaming.

Mayhem is working on opening their very first scream room. It’s exactly what you think it is, a safe place to spend some time just screaming all of the frustration out.

There isn’t an official opening date set yet but it’s coming soon along with pricing.

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Mayhem in Portland, Maine, Will Still Offer Rage Rooms and Paint Splatter

While a scream room is on the way, you can still experience a good time at Mayhem with one of their rage rooms or a paint splatter room.

Both can be experienced in either 20-minute or 30-minute sessions.

All the details including some age and attire requirements can be found here.

TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Things to do in Portland, Maine

Looking for fun things to do in Portland, ME? Here is what the reviewers on TripAdvisor say are the 10 best attractions.

This list was updated in March of 2026

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Gallery Credit: Chris Sedenka

Top 15 of The Most Powerful People in Maine

Ever wonder who the most powerful players are in Maine? I’ve got a list!

Gallery Credit: Getty Images





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