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| Photo from Good Will-Hinckley |
The Good Will-Hinkley Carnegie Library opened its doors in Fairfield, Maine in 1907 to a group of orphan boys.
They must have thought they died and went to heaven. First, George Will Hinkley takes them in off the street, feeds them, educates them and gives them a safe, warm place to sleep at night and then, with $15,000 from Andrew Carnegie, builds a perfect gem of a library.
They must have thought they died and went to heaven. First, George Will Hinkley takes them in off the street, feeds them, educates them and gives them a safe, warm place to sleep at night and then, with $15,000 from Andrew Carnegie, builds a perfect gem of a library.
Rev. George Hinckley started life in Connecticut, where he was deeply affected by seeing boys who were homeless, hungry. As a student at Guilford Institute in the 1860s, he befriended an orphan boy named Ben Mason, who ran away from his temporary slave labor conditions and was hiding out in Guilford. George took him home to live with his family.
George grew up to become Reverend Hinckley and made his way to Maine where he followed his dream of opening a home for needy boys. He settled in Fairfield, Maine on a farm he called Good Will Farm. The farm expanded to Good Will-Hinckley School and became a haven for boys with no where else to turn. Hinckley dedicated himself to creating a place for boys to improve their minds, spirits and bodies and become productive members of society.
In 1905 he wrote to Carnegie, who agreed to give him $15,000 to build a library for his growing gang of boys. Over the decades the Hinckley Library offered books and dreams to thousands of boys and when Hinckley died in 1950, at the age of 97 his vision had been fully realized.
But at the age of 102, the Hinckley Library was rudely awakened with the news that it was no longer needed. The orphan boys had been moved to foster care or were working things out with the help of social services. Policy changes in Maine had made the school financially impossible.
Certainly there were children in need, but there was no money to operate a residential school and too much competition for donations. Homes for wayward children had gone out of fashion. The library doors were locked, the teachers fired and the campus ran dry.
Hinckley’s dream to “provide a home for the reception and support of needy boys and girls who are in need of a home and a helping hand, to maintain and operate a school for them and to attend to the physical, industrial, moral and spiritual development of those who shall be placed in its care; its spirit to be evangelical without being sectarian" seemed to have run its course.
And then, divine intervention, or at least some good luck and timing. The school’s next door neighbor, Kennebec Valley Community College needed some land for expansion. Good Will-Hinckley happliy sold them 680 acres. While every other state slashed school budgets, Governor Paul LePage wisely made the commitment to expand alternative, non-traditional schools for students who struggle to succeed in traditional environments. He miraculously came through with $730,000 a year.
And finally, a re-invention...from “Good Will-Hinckley School” to the “Maine Academy of Natural Science on the Good Will-Hinckley Campus” (good luck getting that printed on a sweatshirt). The school will become the state’s first magnet school to focus on environmental science and, in the process, support the state’s agriculture and forestry industries (Hinckley was also committed to agriculture and the school has an organic farm).
But at the age of 102, the Hinckley Library was rudely awakened with the news that it was no longer needed. The orphan boys had been moved to foster care or were working things out with the help of social services. Policy changes in Maine had made the school financially impossible.
Certainly there were children in need, but there was no money to operate a residential school and too much competition for donations. Homes for wayward children had gone out of fashion. The library doors were locked, the teachers fired and the campus ran dry.
Hinckley’s dream to “provide a home for the reception and support of needy boys and girls who are in need of a home and a helping hand, to maintain and operate a school for them and to attend to the physical, industrial, moral and spiritual development of those who shall be placed in its care; its spirit to be evangelical without being sectarian" seemed to have run its course.
And then, divine intervention, or at least some good luck and timing. The school’s next door neighbor, Kennebec Valley Community College needed some land for expansion. Good Will-Hinckley happliy sold them 680 acres. While every other state slashed school budgets, Governor Paul LePage wisely made the commitment to expand alternative, non-traditional schools for students who struggle to succeed in traditional environments. He miraculously came through with $730,000 a year.
And finally, a re-invention...from “Good Will-Hinckley School” to the “Maine Academy of Natural Science on the Good Will-Hinckley Campus” (good luck getting that printed on a sweatshirt). The school will become the state’s first magnet school to focus on environmental science and, in the process, support the state’s agriculture and forestry industries (Hinckley was also committed to agriculture and the school has an organic farm).
Glenn Cummings, the Academy’s new president and former Maine Speaker of the House, is leading the school through the change and is hopeful that they will be able to re-open the student residences.
I just hope they wash their hands and take off their boots before tromping into the library.
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