Tag Archives: Long Island

Island life

Found items in cottages

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In June we had a return to an island house tour, which was on hold since Covid hit in 2020. This year most of the cottages were on the West End, which tied into the summer exhibit at the Long Island Historical Society, “West End families : from large landholdings to timeless summer colony.”

And now we have a wonderful exhibit in the library’s small glass case, “Found items in cottages,” to expand on celebrating our island cottages, many of which are a step back in time, holding true to their original seasonality of a joy-filled summer home for generations of families.

Baseball anyone?

Some of the objects may seem familiar to some of us, but others harken back to a time of our grandparents, or earlier. Items include a kitchen trivet, baseball bat, antique iron, nut grinder, rock, toiletries, rug beater, nail bent by Charles Atlas, spatula, oar lock, bottle and can opener, mandolin, and phone.

My mother had something similar to this…

Lenders to the exhibit include Barbara Sullivan, Wylie and Jono Morini, Diane Watts, Marianna Stewart and Juliette McVey, Mark and Linda Greene, Candy Dale, Joe and Rennie Donovan, Christine and Tim Day, Kathy and Brian Arsenault, Nancy Jordan, Lorinda Valls, and Rose Barter. Kudos to all of these folks for preserving the heritage of their cottages by saving these treasures.

Charles Atlas is everywhere!

While visiting this exhibit, make sure you see a great literary exhibit, at the Dodwell Gallery, which ties into artwork created by islanders – you will be blown away by the island talent! “Island light: an ekphrastic collaboration”

Island light exhibit

Books, Libraries

Art and Soul 2026

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Another successful Art and Soul took place on July 18th – a beautiful sunny day, of course.

This biennial event benefits the library. This year’s event included creative and beautiful baskets, a silent art auction at the Dodwell Gallery, food and flowers for sale, and a lovely exhibit of art books. And our perpetual book sale in the basement rounded out the appeal to come support the library!

Tasty treats for sale!
Flowers from Nancy Jordan’s garden
Gypsy Village basket
Art book display

Books, Libraries

A story of true friendship – a Little Free Library grows in a beloved garden

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We have a new way to access books on the island – a charming Little Free Library has appeared in the community garden, which makes perfect sense to me, as I think community gardens have a lot in common with community libraries, including seed libraries, providing a place to read and ponder, and a space to feed our body and soul. This one came about through the love of friends of Dan and Alisa Barton. Alisa shares her story here:

Thanks for noticing our special, whimsical Little Free Library, which came into being back in June of 2019 but finally found a home in June of 2026, thanks to the board of the community garden.

The provenance of the library is a story of true friendship. It was designed and built as a surprise – to both Dan and me – for my birthday. It was the brainchild of our close friend, Nancy Langmeyer, who regularly visits us here on the island from Newburyport, MA. She secretly organized a design-build team of friends: (then) islanders Judy Paolini and Jim Thibault and Hope and Dave Madsen, as well as frequent island visitors Carolyn and Jim Wagner.

Judy had found a photo of a playful Little Free Library and this inspired the design. She says the colors of the box are “Alisa colors”. Afterwards, she realized that the door of the library box in the photo wasn’t really angled, it just appeared to be, given the perspective of the photo. We, however, love the fun and unique door that they installed in our box.

Placing the box proved tricky. Our property is on the East end of the island in one of the little off-road neighborhoods and it doesn’t have any road frontage. We also love both Brenda’s box, which was the first on the island, and the library, and didn’t want to take away from either of them. Last year we had the brainstorm that placing the box at the community garden was a central location that could be easily accessed by not only islanders but also visitors. We are very grateful that the board of the garden was kind enough to approve its placement there.

Nancy registered the box with the Little Free Library association and asked us how we wanted to dedicate the box. We chose to honor both our son Christopher and our island community. Christopher, who passed away in 2015, came to the island his whole life and loved it deeply. It is one of the places we feel his spirit strongly. In addition to the island, Chris had a passion for knowledge and learning and loved to read. We are happy to be able to commemorate both of these things he loved through the Little Free Library.

A little free library grows in our community garden

Books, Libraries

Little Free Library – Down front!

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Mary Caliandro had a dream – to return home to Long Island, after many years living elsewhere, most recently Chattanooga, Tennessee. So, a year ago Mary and her husband, Chris Mobley, ventured north and landed in the end condo down front, alongside the road leading down to Ponce’s Landing. Mary had another smaller dream, to put up a “little free library,” to offer books to the community. The location is perfect, as this crossroads is walked by many, on their way to the beach or Bakehouse, or beyond. Mary has been involved in books and reading and libraries for most of her life, and this is her way of giving back.

So, a few months ago, her smaller dream came to fruition, thanks to Mary’s cousin Robbie, who made and brought the little free library out to the island for Mary’s birthday, and Tom McVey, who installed it on the planter. The library has slowly become populated, most recently by children’s books, and more donations are welcome.

Mary’s favorite author is Stephen King – she has read all of his books. She also enjoys all types of fiction, non-fiction, mysteries, and biographies – most recently she read one about Jimmy Carter.

At the end of the summer Mary and Chris are moving from one end of the condos to the other, and will be moving the little free library with them – still a great location, and perhaps a bit more sheltered for the upcoming winter season, which is when we will need books more than ever. Mary says, about her little free library, “It’s a pleasure to have it” – and we are happy to have Mary and Chris here on the island, sharing their passion for books and reading, and brightening up their small corner of Long Island.

Books, Libraries, Music

Art and Soul 2024

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It’s that time again! The biannual fundraiser of the Long Island Community Library. Where else can you buy books, flowers, and baked goods, as well as bid on artwork and purchase raffle tickets for beautiful themed baskets created by island organizations and individuals. There were even opportunities to listen to great music and create paper flowers. Mostly it’s a fine time to gather with island friends and neighbors and celebrate our wonderful island library, on a gorgeous July (20th) day.

Books

Long Island in fiction

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I was recently introduced to a trilogy of books: Seashell Bay novels. While in the genre of romance novels, Long Islanders would be interested in reading this series that takes place on an island in Casco Bay called “Seashell Bay” (which seems like kind of an odd name for an island, but whatever).

Written by V. K. Sykes ( the husband and wife duo of Vanessa Kelly and Randy Sykes) the first book, “Meet me at the Beach” is dedicated “For Phil and Anne Kelly, who showed us the way to Seashell Bay.” In the acknowledgements, they write “Seashell Bay is a fictional place, of course. But there is certainly a Casco Bay, and it provided us with much inspiration for our series. Grateful thanks go to the residents of one small island in particular, especially Bob Stack, Liz and Robin Walker, and Harriet Davis and her two wonderful girls, Claire and Annie (thanks for finding the missing angel, Claire!).” Turns out Vanessa is the daughter of Phil Kelly and his first wife Flora. As most of you know Anne’s sister is Liz, and her niece is Harriet. So, the Davis family was Vanessa’s introduction to Long Island, and inspired her setting her trilogy on our fair island.

Reading through “Meet me at the Beach” is great fun for a Long Islander, trying to glimpse familiar places. In some ways Seashell Bay seems to be a bigger island, perhaps more like a Peaks Island. But there are common themes to Long Island – dances, the VFW, trying to control development, local kids leaving home to get as far away as possible from the island, local kids who choose to stay, the lobstering life, family feuds, generations of Irish American families, alcoholism, a Catholic Church, and the pros and cons of having a car ferry. I’m eager to read the other two books in the series: “See you at sunset,” and “Summer at the shore,” both of which follow the story of two of the friends of Lily, the heroine in the first novel. It’s always fun to read about your hometown, even under the guise of romance novel/beach reads.

Libraries

Bunny Hop Tales: Tales from the Bunny Hop Road

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Bunny HopBunnies are a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, as well as of spring. Here on Long Island bunnies abound on the Bunny Hop Road. This is our tribute to the Bunny Hop Road, through photographs of some of our favorite bunnies, along with bunnies from the collections of Ann Caliandro, Penny Murley, and Meredith Sweet, and bunnies featured in books from the Long Island Community Library.

We welcome your stories about the Bunny Hop Road!

Curated by Erin Love and Nancy Noble

Long Island Community Library, Winter-Spring 2016

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The snowmen are here!

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Snowmen 1Well, it may not officially be winter on the calendar, but on Long Island winter has arrived, with snow on Thanksgiving. So, to celebrate the season, we have a lovely winter exhibit of snowmen, collected over the years by Penny Murley. Stop by the small exhibit case, between the library and small meeting room, and say hello to this wonderful collection of snowmen.

Snowmen 3

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1924 tax records for Long Island – available for research!

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Word is out – the 1924 tax records, owned by the City of Portland, are now available for research! Just go to the site (available through the Maine Memory Network, a site of the Maine Historical Society) to find your house or favorite building on Long Island:

http://www.mainememory.net/search/ptr

Probably the best way to see them all is to type in “Long Island” into the keyword search box.

You can limit the search by street address, owner, etc.

You will be able to see a picture of the building, as well as other information.

The Portland, Maine, 1924 Tax Records were created as part of a city-wide tax reevaluation.   The 2 3/4″ x 4″ original black and white photographs provide extraordinary documentation of the appearance and condition of every taxable property in the city at that time. The accompanying tax forms provide equally valuable information, including the use of the property, the original building materials and finishes and the property’s assessed value as of 1924. On the back of each form, a pencil sketch illustrates the size and shape of the building footprint on the property.

The collection consists of 131 books containing approximately 30,000 pages, each page recording a single property (properties with more than one building will generally have a page for each building).  The records were kept in a cabinet in the Portland tax assessor’s office in City Hall until 2009.1924 tax record project 6

Having these records available online has created quite a buzz all over Portland and Casco Bay, and great fun for researching houses, although some are no longer or unrecognizable.

This was a joint project between the City of Portland, the Portland Public Library, and the Maine Historical Society.