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Memorial Circle

Making your way carefully across the rotary, you come to a modern brown brick and glass structure, 47 Memorial Circle.  Earlier it was the site of the Augusta House, a large hotel built in 1831 to meet the lodging needs of the legislators in the newly established capital city.  The Augusta House closed in early 1974 and was demolished shortly thereafter.  Augusta was voted the seat of state government in 1827, with the requirement that an appropriate location and building (the Capitol building) be established by 1832.  The Legislature first met in Augusta on January 4, 1832.  It is likely many legislators stayed in the Augusta House.

The Maine Press and Radio Women’s founding meeting was held at the Augusta House on April 11, 1952. The Lewiston-Auburn Press-Radio Women (formed three years prior) sponsored the first statewide meeting with support from the New England Women’s Press Association (formed in 1885). Some Maine media women were already members of the New England regional association. The state association’s purpose was to network and plan “something” to help the members individually and collectively. Projects considered at the first meeting ranged from awarding an annual citation for outstanding work, to forming study groups, to establishing an educational committee to help young people wanting to enter the profession. Membership was $1.00, and some 50 women attended the initial meeting.

Augusta women involved with the early organization were Mrs. John H. Daley, Mrs. Marion Hayden, Mrs. Esther Shaw, Mrs. Margaret Frazier, Mrs. Christine Crandall, Mrs. Bertha Welch, Mrs. Brooks Hamilton, Mrs. Jean Lahaye, Mrs. Catherine Rice Gallant, Mrs. Ruth Young, and Misses Ruth Henderson (elected vice-president), Virginia McNamara, Olga Lemke, Ruth Clough, and Ruth Hill. Miss Charlotte Michaud, of Lewiston, was the first president. Maine Press and Radio Women is the predecessor to today’s Maine Media Women. Jean Fallon, of Augusta, was present at that first meeting and recalls being very excited about the event. Jean was the first woman to be a news reporter for television. Augusta women in the print media today include Cay Gallant, Thelma Eye Brooks, Betty Adams, and Lynn Ascrizzi for the Kennebec Journal, and Kate Perry for the Capital Weekly. Cay was the first woman radio program director in the central Maine area. Kate and Mary host local cable television programs.

 Site #18.1 Sources:

 

 

Augusta, Maine Sesquicentennial. Special reprint of Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, Sesquicentennial Edition, Wednesday, July 30, 1947.

 

 Franco American Women’s Institute. Online resource available at www.fawi.net. Accessed 12 May 2001 [Series of Articles on Maine Women and the press, courtesy of the Maine Women Writers Library.]

 

Kennebec Journal, January 1, 1973. [“Augusta House,” Maine State Library Vertical Files.]

 

North, James W. The History of Augusta Maine. Somesworth, NH: New England History Press, 1981. New forward by Edwin A. Churchill. Originally published in 1870 by Clapp and North of Augusta, ME.

 

Portland Women’s History Trail. Online resource available at www.usm.maine.edu/~history/newtrail.html. Accessed 17 January 2001.

 
The University of Maine