Phillips Sider’s Club restores historic Community House

PHILLIPS – This town is on a roll.

This summer, a fund raising campaign by the Phillips High School class of 1967, led by David Toothaker, collected more than $7,000 to refurbish the Phillips Community Church.

Now a second group, called “The Sider’s Club,” has been overhauling the town’s famous 1848 Community House.

Raising money to complete work “One Side At A Time,” the Sider’s Club this month had the front side of the building scraped, sanded and restored to its original historic “peach” color. Sandy River Professional Painters of Rangeley, led by 22-year-old Dan Keirstead, completed the work in 90 degree heat during the first week in September.

Over the last year, contributors to “The Sider’s Club” have helped restore the maple-wood floor in the main hall, paint and decorate the interior (led by Frankie Lockwood), hang new curtains, refurbish two bathrooms, paint the basement, and bring the large kitchen back to restaurant quality condition. The last major restoration took place in the 1980s.

The two-storey Phillips community building has served the town as a newspaper office, basketball court, voting center, business office, music recital center and church, as well as the gathering place for countless wedding, birthday and funeral receptions, and community, Old Home Days and snowmobile fund-raising dinners. One man, now in his seventies, remembers attending Boy Scouts in the Community House. “It’s the heart of our village,” he said.

The Sider’s Club now seeks contributions to refurbish the outside East, West, and River Sides of the Community House.

If you’d like to help, send your contributions to:

Nana Haines, P.O. Box 235, Phillips, ME 04966 Checks should be made out to “The Sider’s Club.”
Sider’s Club names that will be posted at the Community House for their donations and other contributions to the inside and the front side include donors:

Scott and Sylvia Adams
Courtland and Elsie Dill
Chuck Boyer and Kate Dunham
Lawrence Knight
Bill and Frankie Lockwood
Pat Matulaitis
Dr. Susy and Davis Sanders
Ken and Audrey Ziglar

And (partial list of) contributors:

Josh Bachelder
Phillips Hardware
Kathy Spencer
Liam Trodden