The Art Gallery is another one of the University of Southern Maine's oldest buildings on campus. It was originally built in 1821, designed to be a free meeting house. According to the University of Southern Maine website, it was actually built to house a choir group that had been ousted from the old Congregational Church.
Nonetheless, by 1840 the town had come into ownership of the building, and installed the instantly recognizable columns. It was used as the town of Gorham's town hall until 1960, when it came under ownership of the Gorham State Teacher's College. Since 1966 it has been used as an art gallery.
In front of the building is a Civil War monument honoring those from Gorham who fought and died in the war. The monument was erected by Toppan Robie, Frederick Robie's father, and a veteran of the war. The monument is pretty much like any other Civil War monument you would find across the country, except that it's on a college campus.
This is another one of those USM buildings that adds a bit of fresh air to the campus, getting away from the ugly look much of campus has from the buildings put up in the second half of the 20th century. Like the Gorham Academy building, it sits on the edge of campus for people driving by to see, giving the impression that USM actually has a pretty campus.
It's definitely one of my favorite buildings to look at on campus, and actually has that college feel to it, which isn't always so easy to get at USM. It's definitely become a point of interest on campus, and seems like its being fairly well maintained by the college, rightfully so.
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