Working Waterfront

Regional work challenges idea of community

This type of regional collaboration provides a vehicle for improving social and economic opportunity... SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A card for you

Among our many interesting island traditions is one that’s wonderfully functional. Before one of our favorite institutions, The Paper Store, closed, whenever an islander died, or someone with an island connection—a seasonal resident for example or even the mainland relative of one or the other—a little basket appeared on the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Take a break, or it takes you

As I bustled down the school hallway between dropping students off at their elementary classroom and eating a quick lunch before recess duty, something unusual caught my eye. A sea urchin, a resident of the ocean tank outside the kindergarten room, had pinned a piece of rockweed between the aquarium… SEE MORE

“We aim to create a true community newspaper, delivering news about our schools, businesses, local government…”

Working Waterfront

Peaks Island launches newspaper

The goal, according to the website PeaksIslandNews.org, is to provide “objective reporting, focusing on the issues that matter most to our community.” SEE MORE

Shaun Haskins, left, and Kara McCrimmon serve as co-directors of the Cobscook Institute. PHOTO: LESLIE BOWMAN

Working Waterfront

Place-based collaborations buoy Downeast communities

Cobscook Institute and The Community Caring Collaborative are two Washington County nonprofits that center their work on social connection and collaboration. SEE MORE

The inside cover includes Bertie’s hand-written name.

Working Waterfront

Dear diary: 140-year-old journal returns home

Bertie married Fred Hatch and moved to East Boston, where she had three children: Grace, Robert, and Seth Parker. Fred passed away around 1895 due to “phthisis pulmonalis,” known today as tuberculosis. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Education, Native status, domestic violence

High quality education To the editor: I read Kim Hamilton’s “From the Sea Up” column in the October issue, “Rewriting the storyline of island schools” (a great title), with much interest. I wholeheartedly agree with her observation that “Schools play an undeniable role in the ecosystem of a thriving island… SEE MORE

Matthew Powell, left, and George Trinovitch own and operate the Pentagöet Inn in Castine. PHOTO: COURTESY PENTAGÖET INN

Working Waterfront

Welcoming tourists, joining the community

The lodging trade group Hospitality Maine named Powell and Trinovitch its innkeepers of the year for 2023. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The year of the working waterfront

When Island Institute began publishing this newspaper, The Working Waterfront, 30 years ago, we picked our name with intention. We wanted to cover local, critical, and the sometimes hidden yet prescient stories that spoke to the economy, politics, and culture on Maine’s islands and coasts. No other mental image quite… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The sad tale of a religious charlatan

He must have been charismatic. He must have been passionate. And he must have been persuasive. The open question is whether or not his faith was sincere. The late 19th century was an era now known by religious scholars as the Third Great Awakening, a period when Christians expected the… SEE MORE