Private citizens turn condemned building into garden space

 CARIBOU, Maine — Pleasant Street in Caribou has gotten a lot more pleasant, thanks to the green thumb of Jeff Johnston and the initiative of landlords Kate and Kevin McCartney.
About four years ago, the McCartney’s purchased a five-apartment building at 24 Pleasant Street and have made numerous improvements to the apartments since.
Across the way, however, 23 Pleasant Street was an eyesore, an attractive nuisance and a general mess — all attributes confirmed by Caribou’s code enforcement officer, Tony Mazzucco, last week.
The building didn’t have any plumbing, and the owner of the blighted 23 Pleasant Street address was only able to rent the house in the summer because it didn’t have any heating. What it did have was rooms piled high with garbage and a crumbled foundation.
“The inside of the house was so revoltingly horrible that any of the people staying there basically conducted their lives outside on the front lawn for the entire neighborhood to witness,” Kate explained. “It was a nightmare.”
McCartney wasn’t responsible for the house across the street, but she tried for years to get it cleaned up. She went to see the former code enforcement officer, Steve Wentworth, so frequently about the problem property that he would announce her arrival as “Kate McCartney — 23 Pleasant Street.”
By the time the city was able to condemn the building and its owner tried to sell it, the McCartneys were ready to take matters into their own hands.
“There is no way you can attract and maintain quality tenants in an environment with that kind of nonsense going on right outside their windows,” Kate explained.
Tenant Johnston has lived at 24 Pleasant Street for the past seven years, but the view from his front door became exponentially better this spring when the McCartneys purchased the crumbling building and paid to have it demolished.
Purchasing and tearing down the condemned property wasn’t easy and it certainly wasn’t convenient, but Kate still feels it was the right thing to do. She remembers the date the building was demolished as a miserably cold day in May, with rain that was only a few degrees from becoming snow.
“The whole street came out,” she described,” and with that first crunch into the roof, everybody went nuts.”
Returning the corner site to flat dirt, the McCartneys worked with their tenants, Johnston in particular, to redevelop the land in a lovely way.
The McCartneys’ original Pleasant Street property is ornamented with flowers and gardens all maintained by the building’s occupants and they’d expressed a desire for more garden space, but the extent of the garden project surpassed Kate’s expectations.
“Jeff dove right in there and added benches, bird feeders, little decorative things … he’s really blossomed,” she said, acknowledging the gardening pun.
Johnston said that having a garden on Pleasant Street has really brought the community together.
“I have neighbors up here that I probably never would have met if it wasn’t for the garden,” Jeff said, describing how different folks have planted different plants and crops in the new garden’s raised beds.
In fact, the garden is getting ready for its first harvest with beets, red cabbage, pickling cucumbers, yellow string beans, green beans, broccoli, carrots, radishes and lettuce.
“We were surprised for our first year, but it really took off well,” Johnston said. “It gets great sun and it’s a really great location — and it’s going to look even better next year.”
The garden has flourished under Johnston’s knowledgeable care, but he modestly explained that he learned to garden through research, trial and error, and helpful tips offered from his neighbors who’ve stopped at the garden for conversation and ambiance.
Overall, Johnston says he likes gardening for its educational qualities and the relaxing peacefulness it offers, but he was quick to credit Kate for her role in making the expanded garden space possible.
“I’m just glad that our landlord took it upon herself to buy the property,” he said.