Maine State Building, Poland Spring, ca. 1900
Item 25525 info
Poland Spring Preservation Society
The resort also offered cultural activities, many centered in the Maine State Building.
The building was constructed to represent the State of Maine at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. When the fair ended in 1894, the Rickers claimed their home state’s building.
It was painstakingly disassembled, hauled back to Maine aboard 16 railroad cars, and reassembled in a shaded pine grove between the Poland Spring and Mansion Houses. The reassembled Maine State Building was rededicated at Poland Spring on July 1, 1895.
It exemplified the transformation of the site from a country farm in 1860 to a "summer city" by the turn of the century.
Moreover, it symbolized one aspect of the resort’s cultural significance as "a city of vivid contrasts." At the antimodern end of the spectrum was escape from urban life and retreat to the romantic virtues of natural surroundings and the classical values of the pastoral landscape.
At the other end was the retention of urban amenities. Influenced by the precepts of the city beautiful movement, the Maine State Building served many of the functions – art gallery, museum, library, and newspaper – that the urban elite believed elevated intelligence and uplifted morals, thereby advancing culture and civilization.
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