Colby College Is Stepping In to Save a Maine Town After Disaster

In the fishing village of Port Clyde, Maine, where tame chickens cross and recross the one road in and out, never saying why, life still unfolds at the Monhegan Boat Line, Off the Dock Lobsters, Squid Ink Coffee, the Barn Café, Village Ice Cream, the Black Harpoon restaurant, the art gallery, two old inns and a lighthouse.

But just about everything else changed on the night of Sept. 28, 2023, when a stove gas leak exploded into a blaze that destroyed the popular waterside Dip Net restaurant and adjacent general store and its art gallery upstairs filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of works by the Wyeth dynasty of painters, who have deep roots in the area. No one was hurt, but the community was devastated, leaving a waterfront gap like a missing front tooth in the smile of a beauty queen.

A benefactor arrived in Linda Bean of the L.L. Bean outfitting family, who promised to rebuild the town. But just six months later, on March 23, 2024, she died at 82, orphaning her development dreams, to mixed local emotion.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/business/colby-college-port-clyde-maine-waterfront.html