Kittery, Maine –A project to gather the living memories of Kittery’s Grange and Foreside neighborhood got a boost this month with a planning grant from the Maine Humanities Council.

“There’s rarely a week I don’t meet someone who recalls going to dances or other events in the Grange Hall,” says Drika Overton, founder and director of the Dance Hall, located in the old Grange building on Walker Street. “The Grange was a core part of civic life in many Maine towns for most of the last century.”

“I realized this is a rich history we need to capture, especially now that Kittery is changing rapidly and many people are moving here who don’t know much about its past,” she says. “The $500 grant from the Council will help us get started.”

The core of the project will be videotaped interviews, says Overton. 

Overton is known in the Seacoast as a tap dancer/teacher, creator of the jazz adaptation of The Nutcracker (Clara’s Dream), and co-producer of a film (4 Theatres: Remembering Portsmouth in the Age of Vaudeville) about the early theaters of Portsmouth. She intends to weave the collected stories, photographs, and other artifacts into a multi-media public exhibit, and perhaps a performance. 

“We’re planning to work with the Kittery Historical and Naval Society, the state Grange, high school students and the Rice Public Library,” Overton says. “We already have volunteer writers, researchers, preservationists, and photographers involved. It’s exciting.”

People who have memories to share about the Kittery Grange or the Foreside are invited to contact Drika Overton, 207-703-2083. Photographs also are being sought.