The University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast officially closed Friday, but locals aren’t ready to give up on the center. Some are now fighting for a seat at the table in discussions about the future of the facility.
The center, located on Route 3, has been deeply entwined with Belfast throughout its development, providing educational and professional opportunities to the midcoast for 23 years. The mid-June announcement of the university’s plans to close the center and potentially sell the property as a way to cut costs was met with frustration by some community members.
Now, a group of local residents is pushing for the university to put any plans to sell on hold, with a goal to keep educational opportunities and events going at the center in the future.
“We are looking for a way to work with the University of Maine so that the space can continue to be used as a facility that expands the educational and cultural experiences available to people of the area,” said Judy Stein, a member of the recently formed community group that’s calling itself the Future of the Belfast Hutchinson Center.
The group has not yet met with the university and doesn’t yet have a full solution to offer on how to keep the space open, Stein said. But right now, it’s about getting more time to allow for talks with university officials and come up with a plan, she said.
“We’ve come away with the impression that their interest is in selling it as quickly as possible,” Stein said. “That’s what we don’t want to have happen, because there’s no sense whatsoever of what it would become or how it would be used.”
It’s unclear what will happen to the center now that it’s been closed. While UMaine officials said in a statement they are committed to providing educational opportunities in the area, they haven’t specified what will happen to the building.
“We and the leaders of the University of Maine System are evaluating several options for the center property in ways that align with system policies, and will allow it to continue serving Belfast and Waldo County residents,” officials said. “We have been and continue engaging with many stakeholders and are considering community needs in our evaluation.”
The city wasn’t given any advance warning about the plans to close the facility, said Belfast Mayor Eric Sanders.
Sander said the city does want to be involved in discussions about its future.
“It would’ve been nice to get our input, since it’s in our backyard,” Sanders said.
The center hadn’t offered in-person classes since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed programming online, but the facility’s closure is still a major loss to the community, Stein said.
The center opened in 2000 with a stated goal to expand access to high-quality educational opportunities to the midcoast. Built through an agreement between Fred Hutchinson, then president of the University of Maine, and Charles Cawley, founder of the MBNA banking corporation, who provided funding for its development, the property was later donated to the university.
Sanders worked at MBNA while the Hutchinson Center was built and considered it a pride point that the head of the company he worked for was giving it as a gift to his community. The center played an important role for many people in Belfast and the surrounding region, he said.
“The Hutchinson Center is beloved by a lot of the midcoast,” Sanders said. “The Hutchinson Center as an extension of the University of Maine was, and is, very important to the city of Belfast.”
Local residents played a key role in raising around $2 million through donations that allowed the center to expand science programming with a full new wing that opened in 2009, Stein said.
The Hutchinson Center also hosted regional and statewide conferences, provided space for a number of exhibitions by local artists, and was the home of the area’s Senior College classes. The closure will force those to move elsewhere, Stein said.
She and other members of the Belfast group want to see University of Maine uphold the original intent to provide accessible education opportunities in the region, and to open a dialogue with community members on the future of the facility.
“What we want now is for people in the community to come together and for the university to work with the people in the community, so that [the Hutchinson Center], which was a gift in large measure, is not lost,” Stein said.
