LEWISTON — City resident Darby Ray thinks there’s a need for more public gathering spaces — places to share ideas or maybe swing your partner in a square dance.
And she thinks the historic Red Shop in the northeast corner of Simard-Payne Memorial Park might just be the place for it.
“I think we need more spaces where folks can come together on a chilly winter day like today and maybe share ideas about something, have a forum or a conversation or a square dance,” said Ray, who works at Bates College. “We need places to gather that are easily accessible and low barrier in terms of expense.”
Ray — who also floated the idea of allowing families to use the space for reunions — was one of several people to visit The Red Shop on Wednesday to share their vision for the future.
The 1938 building was once part of Bates Mill and served as a machine shop. It spans one of the canals that runs from the Androscoggin River to the mill building and has mechanisms once used to control the flow of water to part of the mill.
Reimagining the shop is just part of the city’s ongoing efforts to improve the 8.5-acre park that hosts large events like the annual balloon festival and Dempsey Challenge. An updated draft of the park’s master plan includes a community pavilion, a new playground, and improvements to the existing amphitheater.
Amy Smith, executive director of Lewiston Rowing, organized the open house to show the community how it could be set up for events. Two musicians played music in one corner, a buffet table offered snacks in another and a large projector displayed images on a pull-down screen.
“We’re trying it out as an event space because what we’d love to do is make it a community asset where people can use it for all types of things,” Smith said.
Those things could include fundraisers and graduation parties, she said. In recent years, there’s been talk of turning it into a café or a place to serve as an anchor for food trucks.
The 2,400 square foot space and large outdoor area could accommodate events with 20-100 people, Smith said.
The Red Shop is tucked away in a corner of the park and has its own parking lot. Smith hopes the old shop can develop its own identity as a place for small community events.
“If you try to throw a big event at Simard-Payne, which I’ve done before, you need like 10,000 people for it to feel well attended,” Smith said. “This way we’re trying to carve out this corner which is totally focused on the river so we can have these more manageable events.”
Lewiston Rowing currently uses some of the space for storage, but Smith said plans call for a boat storage area closer to the river. Her vision for The Red Shop area includes helping more people get to the water.
“A lot of people who live right in the downtown don’t have a place to store their boat and even if they did, it’s hard to car top it down here and unload it and everything,” she said. “We’re trying to increase access to the river.”
If you’d like to share your ideas for the future of The Red Shop, Lewiston Rowing has a survey on its website at lewistonrowing.com.