Joel Bouchard of Fairfield was a member of the MSAD 49 Board of Directors from 2021-2024.

In 1888, Amos Gerald constructed the Fairfield Opera House, one of the largest public entertainment venues in Kennebec Valley. More than a stage, it was a cornerstone of community life, using the arts to nurture a growing town and answering every call placed upon it.

When Lawrence High School burned on Feb. 15, 1925, the Opera House opened its doors without hesitation, temporarily serving as a schoolhouse so that education would not miss a single day. Education, the arts and community, intertwined for the greater good. After 73 years of service, the Opera House was torn down, a casualty of neglect, leaving a void that would take decades to fill.

On Jan. 2, 1997, a meaningful step was taken toward reclaiming that legacy. The 1965 will of Bert Williamson had established a $250,000 trust fund, one that had quietly grown to nearly $5 million. After a judge ruled that a new performing arts center would honor the intent of that will, the board approved the funds for design work to begin.

Four years later, in November of 2001, the work was complete. “The Crucible” graced the stage as the debut performance on the 15th, and once again, in the spirit of Amos Gerald’s vision, Fairfield had a home for performing arts. Its purpose was clear and well-documented: a facility intended to serve dual roles as both a school and public arts center, welcoming music, theater and the wider community through its doors.

And yet, as the years passed, something began to erode. Businesses moved out of town. Buildings came down. Even the former home of Amos Gerald, once a crown jewel leading visitors into downtown, now stands vacant surrounded by fencing, with the grandeur of Main Street reduced to a bare strip, where on one side, only the former hotel of Mr. Gerald remains standing. The decline is visible, and is felt.

One might reasonably expect that our performing arts center, built on the foundation of a century-old legacy, would rise to meet this moment. That just as the original Opera House sheltered Lawrence High School in its hour of need, our new facility would shelter the community in its own. That the arts would once again serve as the thread stitching us back together. That expectation, however, has become anything but certain.

We are now a town that has bled businesses, and watched residents leave in waves. And in the midst of that, longtime local institutions now struggle simply to secure access to a space they have long called home. 

The fact that the politics of the town office now occupies the former site of the Opera House is, in its own quiet way, poetic, and not in a flattering sense.

Nearly a century after that building opened its doors to Lawrence High School in a moment of crisis, that same school is now playing politics over access to their space. The spirit of community stewardship has been replaced with an apparent hope that those who have relied on this facility for years will simply move on. Some already have.

Amos Gerald and Edward Lawrence were friends. They were builders, of structures, but more importantly, of community. They loved this town with a devotion that shaped its identity for generations. One can only imagine what those two giants of our history would think of what we have allowed our town to become.