Funds still needed to finish repairs in spring
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
NEW SWEDEN — The Music Bowl in Thomas Park was a place for gathering and celebration for central Aroostook folks for generations, but without the 500 volunteer hours that went into securing the damaged structure this fall, the building could have very well seen its last winter.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
The W.W. Thomas Memorial Music Bowl currently looks like it did when it was first built in 1937; supportive wings to better stabilize the structure weren’t completed until 1939.
As the iconic amphitheater stands now, it’s strongly set for the winter in a fashion that would certainly garner approving nods from original builders John Ringdahl and sons, Chester and Fredrick. Over the last three months, walls have been returned to their correct 90-degree angles, the building has been placed atop a three-foot concrete wall that’s pinned to the bedrock and tremendously strong 500 pound brackets have been fastened in place to keep the front of the stage perfectly perfect.
“There’s no way she’s going to move,” said lead volunteer Bub Anderson.
But it was a different ballgame at the beginning of the summer, when volunteers were painfully aware of the repair work that needed to be done but lacked the funds to move forward with improvements — all the while knowing that another season of a heavy Aroostook snowfall could have meant curtains for the historic amphitheater.
“If a camper or a house falls down — I can build a camper or a house. I can’t build a bowl,” Anderson explained, emphasizing the importance of keeping the amphitheater in sound shape.
Shoring up the structure was no simple task, and it was done inch by inch.
“The building was bowed out three inches on the south side, seven inches on the north side — but now she’s 90 degrees perfect,” Anderson said, explaining that the building’s exterior walls (which shelter the curved bowl) were drawn in by cable wires that would be drawn in a little more every week to correct the horizontal alignment. The building received vertical assistance from New Sweden volunteer Jerry McLaughlin, a mason, who jacked the structure up from the middle.
With dedicated volunteers who clearly have a tremendous amount of respect for the historic and cultural significance of the building, it was tough love by which they had to place two small holes, about two inches in diameter or so, in the bowl’s interior walls in order to run the corrective cable from wall to wall.
(Anderson stated that he didn’t really like having to put the two holes in the wall, but assured that they will be patched.)
Though the 75-year-old Music Bowl has been heartily toughened up to survive the winter, Anderson says that there’s still approximately 500 hours of work to be done come spring to ensure the building will be standing tall for another 75 years at least.
Two things are still sorely needed to complete the repairs, namely funds to purchase materials and the volunteer assistance of additional capable builders.
One anonymous Caribou business is doing their best to assist in fund-raising efforts and as explained by volunteer David Spooner, the business will match the largest single donation made to the restoration of the Music Bowl between now and Tuesday, Dec. 25 (not to exceed $500).
There’s even an event on Facebook called “Thomas Park’s Christmas List,” which includes things the Music Bowl needs in order to return to its former aesthetic state.
Three new structural pieces await construction this spring, re-trussing the building with two new wings to secure the building’s front and a storage building in the back to guarantee that the Thomas Park amphitheater couldn’t fall down even if it wanted to.
New lumber is also needed for the front of the stage, where the wood had rotted, and should enough funds be generated, volunteers are hoping that vinyl siding that looks just like the old wood it would cover could be purchased to truly make the building maintenance free.
