Questions arose at Tuesday’s Bridgton Selectmen’s meeting about the historic eligibility of the Main Street building to receive a $9,500 matching facade grant under the Community Development Block Grant program administered through Cumberland County.

By Gail Geraghty

Staff Writer

Last-minute questions have arisen over whether the Bridgton Books building on Main Street has enough historical significance to qualify for a Community Development Block Grant from the town.

Planning and Economic Development Director Anne Krieg told Bridgton Selectmen Tuesday that Cumberland County CBDG officials raised the question with her last week, when turning over the final CDBG project list as decided by the board at their March 8 meeting. Krieg said county officials told her that the building, owned by Justin and Pam Ward, needs to be either listed on or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in order to receive the $9,500 in matching funds the Wards have requested for facade improvements.

She said both she and the county are now researching the issue, but wanted to make the board’s grant approval for the bookstore provisional on establishing the building’s historic status. In the 2004 Bridgton Historical Society publication, Rediscovering Bridgton’s Main Street, the building, located at the corner of Nulty and Main Street in what is known as Post Office Square, is known as the March Building and has a rich history of prior retail uses dating back to the 1920s.