From
ox goads to cell phones
Local man buys historic building in Gray
By Elizabeth Prata
Gray--Darren McGovern came home and he didn't even
know it, at first.
McGovern had been working at Time Warner as a Sales
Manager for almost ten years. "I didn't want
to see myself phased out suddenly. I'd seen it happen
over and over, including to my old boss. I decided
I can't allow myself to be in that position."
So he decide to strike out on his own. "I'd
handled some of the company's landlords and real
estate. My friends said, 'you ought to get into
real estate.' I thought about it, but my wife was
opposed. It took a few years to convince her."
McGovern soon was buying and selling properties
in the area with his brother. One of those properties
was the set of buildings at Gray Center, one of
the oldest historical fixture in town, housing shops
since at least the 1830s.
Over the centuries, the complex at 5 Main Street
has hosted a country general store, a grain store,
harness shop, post office, insurance office, pizza
shop, and a variety of small grocery stores. Gray's
first town hall and fire station are adjacent.
Darren's parents had lived in Gray before he was
born, but parts of the family had become estranged.
Years alter, Darren's aunt and uncle came back to
visit Darren's parents. They stopped into the grocery
store to ask directions, and the man became curious,
asking Darren's aunt and uncle who they were visiting
and why. "It turns out that it was my grandfather,
and he was the meat cutter there for years."
So the grandson, Darren is rehabbing the very building
that his grandfather worked in, and it feels like
coming home. He said, "I've installed 600 amp
service, painted the exterior, remodeled the interior,
and made it ready for new tenants." The locksmith
is gone and Darren has had a chance to remodel that
unit. "It's really, really nice inside,"
he said.
Darren's own unit is the One Stop Connection Shop,
an agent for Pine Tree Networks, GWI, US Cellular,
and Cingular, high tech items in same building that
was used to sell ox goads and harnesses a hundred
and seventy five years ago.
Captions:
The
first of the two older photos depict Gray Village
in 1905 with Haskell's Feed store, no longer here.
The brick building, taller building, and triangle
window building still exist. The building on the
end no longer stands, it used to be Osgood's Ice
Cream Parlor. Now it's a park.
The photo below was taken in 1978, and shows little
change, with the center buildings intact and the
traffic almost non-existent.
The
newest photo below was snapped this week and shows
the building's new paint job and the fact that even
at 8:25 on a weekday morning one can snap a photo
with no traffic obscuring what was once parking
spots for horses and oxen.
Source,
older photos: Images of America, Gray, Maine by
Louise Knapp and the Gray Historical Society.
New photo: The Monument Newspaper: Prata photo
