Stone Path Between Eastern Prom and Fort Allen Park

By Carol McCracken

Work is on-going on the 400 ft. path between the Eastern Promenade and Fort Allen Park on the Hill.  It will be a walkway between the two that is expected to be completed in time for the Fourth of July celebration – which has already been underway for some time now.

About a month ago the supporters of this effort began to realize this path could be completed in time for the annual event.  Construction began on June 2nd.  There have already been users of the path who had noticed the recent work there and been curious about it.  One was a woman who is a resident of Portland House, another was a fisherman who lives on the HIl and two were women visiting from Gorham.  All said they had noticed the stone steps and had been using them already.

Charlie Bodin, a mason with Portland Trails who lives on the Hill,  said that the stones used for the steps are from the city’s ‘bone yard’ – its storage facility for recycled stones used elsewhere in the city originally.  Bodin said that the ‘field stones’ used for the sides of each stone step come from Hiram. 

The last step will be the placement of a Portland Trails sign, landscaping and an interfacing with the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum & Co. to assure that path users don’t run  into danger on the train tracks when exiting the  path onto the Trail along the Eastern Promenade.