RUMFORD – The owner of JD Printing on Congress Street plans to open an item shop and motorcycle repair shop this year at the historic Clough-Pillsbury building, also on Congress Street.
Jessica Freeman bought the assets at 109 Congress Street with her father, David Arsenault of New Jersey for $12,770. Your offer will be accepted unanimously through the Selection Board on July 16.
“We were looking for another building,” he said. “It was the best time for us.”
According to Maine Preservation, William Clough and Walter Pillsbury opened a hardware business in the construction of three-story bricks in 1916. It covers approximately 6,000 square feet and the upper floors retain various presentations and inventories of historic hardware, adding cutlery, stoves, sheetry, paints, fishing and merchandise.
The municipality took possession of it in 2009 for unpaid taxes. It’s been vacant ever since.
In 2018, Maine Preservation ranked it as one of the most endangered historical sites in the state.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Peter Chase said, adding that there was a local market for a motorcycle shop.
Freeman said his purpose to open until the end of the year. Within a year of opening, they plan to create five to ten jobs.
Theresa Sax donated $13,000 for construction to look craftsman and craftsmen on the first floor and upstairs offices.
“Sorry, however, I would vote for it, ” Sax told people. She said she’d look for the place.
Once Freeman’s proposal was approved, he called his father to tell him the news.
“It’s pretty full of life about it and it starts right away,” he said. Their circle of relatives will help prepare the business, as they did with their printing plant at 132 Congress Street, which opened last Christmas.
“I have a fondness to see Congress Street once it became a shopping district,” he said. “I need it to be like when I was a kid. You walk down the street, and every construction you pass is an open and active business.”
The circle of relatives would also like to open a small bowling alley, if they can locate the proper space, he said.
No thanks