Isle au Haut, Maine — A $3 million community center and affordable housing project on Isle au Haut got preliminary approval to start construction from the island’s planning board on Nov. 11.
Isle au Haut is home to about 50 year-round residents. During summer, the population jumps to a few hundred.
Fannie Allen, a seasonal resident for 45 years, has been spearheading efforts to build the community center for the past three years. She hopes the Community Hub of Isle au Haut, known to locals as “the hub,” will help keep year-round residents and even attract new ones. “We believe the community hub project is an important element to support future sustainability of the island. It creates a little bit more of ‘there there’ and provides much needed affordable housing,” Allen said.
Over $2 million has been raised and 2 acres donated to the hub’s nonprofit. Draft plans include an 1,800-square-foot community center and two 550-square-foot affordable housing units. If everything goes as planned, site work will start in December and construction will be finished by next fall.
The combination gymnasium, library and town hall currently hosts most public gatherings, but Allen feels the library is its only cozy room and isn’t big enough for social activities like playing board games or knitting groups — both popular activities in the winter. Allen said the hub’s goal is to create a space with comfortable indoor and outdoor seating where people can gather for social and educational events.
The hub project also includes a commercial kitchen that would support a summer cafe, something the island has been without for over 10 years.
The project received no public opposition during its preliminary permitting process, but not everyone is on board with the hub.
“This remote island with a year-round population of about 60 people has so many needs,” said Rachel Harris, a seasonal resident since the late 1980s. “We need better roads. We need to renovate our over-100-year-old town hall. We need to upgrade our firefighting equipment. We need to support the community infrastructure — the boat company, the electric company, the island grocery store, the school, housing. This is a question of values and priorities.”
Housing gaps
Allen initially focused solely on creating a community center. But as she interviewed 60 year-round and seasonal residents about the community center she heard clearly that the island needs housing for single people.
Allen heard from locals who grew up on Isle au Haut that they wanted to return to the island after college but could not find housing of their own.
Last year, Allen said the Isle au Haut Power Company couldn’t find a new general manager because of lack of housing.
A well-established nonprofit on the island, Isle au Haut Community Development Corporation, already focuses on affordable housing for families. Unlike ICDC, Allen said the hub’s housing would fill the need for single people.
Remodel or build new?
In the beginning, Allen focused her efforts on surveying existing properties to remodel, including the town hall, which turned out to be on a very small piece of land that wouldn’t accommodate an expanded septic system to support the kind of traffic or activities they’d like to see at the hub.
The island store was considered but also didn’t have a septic system and was in a location vulnerable to flooding. Other houses for sale had similar limitations.
Then Mat Hastings, a long standing seasonal resident, offered to donate a 2 acre piece of his land right across from the town dock. The central location couldn’t be more ideal for a community center, Allen said, and also makes it so that occupants of the affordable housing wouldn’t necessarily need a car on the island right away.
Why a tiny island needs a community center
While Allen hasn’t seen the island itself change much over the years, she said, “It’s harder to find people who want to live in such an isolated place.” Families move away from Isle au Haut for many reasons, but, according to Allen, there is often an “element of needing more social opportunities,” and she said that a designated place for winter gatherings would really be appreciated by members of the year-round community, especially women.
“The last 15 unbridged island communities in Maine are a vanishing breed. If we could attract seven to 10 more households to live on IAH, there’d be more people riding the boat, using the store, using electricity, serving in town government, kids for the school,” said Allen.
Why a tiny island needs a commercial kitchen
“Even if two people are using [the kitchen], to me, that’s successful because we only have 50 people,” said Abigail Hiltz, a longtime year-round resident.
Hiltz wears many hats on the island including first select board member, caretaker, painter and chef. Speaking as the owner of the only restaurant on the island, she thinks a commercial kitchen in the hub will improve the quality of life on the island by creating opportunities for residents to work on something they are passionate about. Running her food truck is the most creative of all her jobs and, she said, helps to mix things up.
Logistics and fundraising
After two years of fundraising, more than $2 million in donations have been pledged. While those funds have come from private donors and foundations, they’ve met with state officials who encouraged them to apply for funding. They’ve submitted an application for more than $1 million in federal funds, but so far they’ve not received any “slow money,” Allen’s term for government funding.
If the project stays on schedule, they will start site work within the next couple of months and complete the buildings by the fall of 2026. The construction firm, Hewes & Company, out of Blue Hill, is completing the pre-construction work necessary to provide more accurate cost estimates and create working drawings needed to start the building process. The hub hopes to hire Hewes & Co. for construction, too, since they have experience building on the island — an endeavor which presents challenges like navigating barge schedules, weather and employee housing. Another draw for working with Hewes & Company is their ability to create panelized sections in their shop, which will help make the construction process more cost and time efficient. They also have traditionally used on-island labor to add to their workforce which helps to support the island’s economy.