But Bean’s promise to rebuild “as soon as possible” now seems less imminent than it did last fall. Epic storms in January, fueled by rising sea levels and increasingly violent weather, repeatedly flooded the peninsula where Port Clyde sits, forcing planners to confront the need to raise or relocate the building.
The picture became even darker in March, when Linda Bean died at age 82.
Representatives of Bean’s estate and local residents say they remain determined to rebuild. And there has already been considerable progress towards returning to normal, with shops and cafes catering to both locals and tourists open during the busy summer season. The Monhegan Boat Line office building, which was severely damaged by the fire, was rebuilt and opened a few weeks ago. Amy Barstow, who with her husband, Andy, runs the daily ferry service to Monhegan Island, said getting the building back was a big step forward for the town.
Maine.” class=”height_a width_full invisible width_full–mobile width_full–tablet-only” src=”https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/a7S7jJy8DHE23WipoaHnOGx1OeY=/960×0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PVEKKWAU3QFHPWYL3MJXZSHTFU.jpg” srcset=”https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/xjgPUtj9Z38fH-dE0a_8Q4CmkXc=/1440×0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PVEKKWAU3QFHPWYL3MJXZSHTFU.jpg 1440w, https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/4KfIt1Y_iuF1qD9ALe3184Vappg=/1280×0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PVEKKWAU3QFHPWYL3MJXZSHTFU.jpg 1280w, https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/hZ5YfSc5j10OCUdYacPO5o_rfI8=/1024×0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PVEKKWAU3QFHPWYL3MJXZSHTFU.jpg 1024w, https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/OcMe3LkMs6lgoe6sx7mtGpHpNoE=/820×0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PVEKKWAU3QFHPWYL3MJXZSHTFU.jpg 820w, https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/fl7pk7InKZGH7OcT9K_q0faGUoM=/600×0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PVEKKWAU3QFHPWYL3MJXZSHTFU.jpg 600w, https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/EvMScR3yMuk2kk0UccE0nzRRbAI=/420×0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PVEKKWAU3QFHPWYL3MJXZSHTFU.jpg 420w, https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/YeVVxnpQsQagsM-DnF6PJ1FPjFI=/240×0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PVEKKWAU3QFHPWYL3MJXZSHTFU.jpg 240w” loading=”lazy”>A picture of the historic general store that was destroyed by fire sits on a shelf in a frame on the first floor of the Monhegan Boat Line, which is temporarily acting as a general store in Port Clyde, Maine.Michael G. Seamans
But architects are still working on plans to replace the distinctive green clapboard building that housed the General Store, the Maine Wyeth Art Gallery above the store and the adjacent Dip Net restaurant, where the fire started.
After the January storms, Veronika Carlson, president of Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Hospitality group, told developers that the company hoped to begin construction on the new building in September and finish it next May. But Carlson told the Globe recently that the schedule since then changed because “we are still in the design stage.”
“We don’t have a start date because we’re not authorized yet, but it will most likely be in the spring of 2025,” Carlson said.
The town and its businesses, meanwhile, have had to adapt to the temporary absence of the General Store building.
The General Store rents space on the renovated ferry building, giving locals and visitors a place to stock up on supplies at the only grocery store here.
The Dip Net restaurant recently began selling food from a bright red Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster food truck on the adjacent landing. The Wyeth Gallery, dedicated to displaying the art of three generations of the artist family, has moved into the dining room of Ocean House, a village inn owned by Bean. Among the artwork destroyed in the fire were three original paintings by Monhegan Island homeowner Jamie Wyeth and an illustration by his grandfather, NC Wyeth.
Karan Cushman, a Port Clyde resident who runs a marketing company and sits on the Port Clyde Strong committee, said one challenge is getting the word out that the village is open to the public.
“Port Clyde is really driven largely by tourism in the summer, people coming from afar,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll keep coming back this year.”
But, he added, something as simple as the resumption of Sunday breakfast at Ocean House has lifted the spirits of the locals who frequent it.
“It’s not just about getting back to normal for tourists,” he said. “It’s about getting back to normal for us.”
As for the hole in the boardwalk, now fenced, “There is a visual hole and it seems like our hearts are missing,” he said.
How to fill that gap will depend on planners at the Bean company and the city of St. George itself, where the town of Port Clyde is located.
City Manager Rick Erb said the biggest issues to resolve are elevation and pedestrian access.
“It’s right on the coast, with increasing sea issues,” Erb said. “That said, we can address issues we couldn’t before. “Everyone will miss the old General Store, but the plans we’ve seen so far are true to the old.”
Raising the building by half a meter, as Carlson suggested to the planning board, would be easy enough. Increasing it more than that, which cannot be ruled out, will mean much more complicated development, planning board members said.
Sally Crusan, development manager at the Herring Gut Coastal Science Center in Port Clyde, said adapting to the environment is something local people are used to. Every day he wakes up before dawn to the sound of lobstermen starting their engines. For generations, fishermen here have had to adapt to regulations and a changing climate.
“It’s a new story,” he said of the challenges of sea level rise, “but an old story at the same time.”
Sarah Oktay, executive director of the science center, is an ocean scientist and a member of the city’s resilience committee, which won a grant to assess infrastructure vulnerabilities to sea level rise and propose solutions that will influence how Port Clyde ends up the reconstruction process on its coast. .
Crusan and Cushman enlisted the services of Cheryl Clegg, a Massachusetts photographer who owns a home in Maine, to capture the resilience of Port Clyde residents in the aftermath of the fire. Clegg had previously documented the challenges faced by lobstermen across Maine.
Starting in July, Clegg’s photographs of locals will hang on the Monhegan ferry building throughout the summer, a visual testament to the determination of the people of Port Clyde to rebuild.
“Their resilience is amazing,” Clegg said. “It’s about moving forward, not stopping and not waiting for someone else to do something. It may take longer than they would like to get things back to where they were before the fire, but when you talk to these people, you have no doubt that they will stay that way.”
Linda Bean did much to raise the profile of Port Clyde, buying businesses and houses that provided employment for locals and places for tourists to spend money. She acknowledged that some people thought she shopped too much and others didn’t like her conservative politics. But there is no denying that she had a great influence here, and the company that survived her is determined to see her wishes of rebuilding the General Store fulfilled.
Shortly before he died, Bean told The New York Times that keeping the Port Clyde boardwalk open for fishermen was his number one priority.
After his death, Bean’s family and close friends gathered for a private service at his home on Teel Island, west of Port Clyde. In a show of respect, about a dozen Port Clyde lobster boats formed a semicircle around the island.
“It was very moving,” said Karan Cushman, whose husband is a lobster fisherman and was on one of those boats. “Linda was a good friend and very devoted to Port Clyde. Some people criticize, but everything she touched, she and her team improved. Her mark on Port Clyde will be forever.”
Kevin Cullen is a Globe reporter and columnist who roams New England. He can be contacted at kevin.cullen@globe.com.
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