Tag Archives: Widgery Wharf
‘Wharfside Stories’ help unwrap history of Portland’s working waterfront
For more than 60 years Leland Merrill has made a daily pilgrimage to Widgery Wharf on the city’s waterfront. These days Merrill, now in his early 90s, no longer works a lobster boat, but he still has many friends on the wharf. Merrill’s tales of life and work among the lobstermen based in Portland Harbor is part of a new collaboration between the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership and the Waterfront Alliance. The project, called “”Wharfside Stories”,” provides a look at various aspects of Portland’s working waterfront. It will be part of an exhibition that’s open to the public during the day-long Portland Unwrapped event taking place Wednesday at various venues throughout the city. continue reading the story here 16:44
How Portland’s lobstermen preserve the working waterfront
And that’s where that quintessential Maine stubbornness comes into play. 
, Peter Kelly, who has owned Widgery Wharf since the boom days of the 70′s, has been approached several times over the decades by prospective developers looking to convert the historic wharf into condos. “This wharf was built in 1777,” said Kelly, “so every time one of those developers asks me about selling, I tell them that this has always been a fishermen’s wharf, and as long as I’m around it’ll stay a fishermen’s wharf.” Read the rest here 08:10
