Construction of Nokomis Regional High
In the mid 1960’s the towns of Corinna, Newport, Hartland, St. Albans, Plymouth, and Palmyra formed the Maine School Administrative District # 48. Plans for a new consolidated high school soon developed and construction began. In 1968 Nokomis Regional High opened. Jim Louder of Corinna was on the Board of Directors for the district. He was proud of the plans to offer the students of the area a new high school. He used an 8mm home movie camera to film some of the construction. His family saved the films and had them converted to VHS tape. Some years ago I acquired a copy of the tape and converted it to digital format.
Now, about 50 years after it opened, Nokomis has been replaced by a new facility and the old building will be demolished. This seems like a good time to take a look at the home movies Jim made of the building of Nokomis. This short video is an edited version of his film. You will notice that recording video has come a long way in 50 years.
After viewing the video take note of the picture at the bottom of this page for a side story about the 1965 Oldsmobile that appears near the end.
SIDE STORY
Did you notice the image on the right near the end of the film? That is Jim’s 1965 Oldsmobile convertible parked at the Nokomis site while he was filming. I had many great rides in that car with his son David and our friends. The wonderful thing about that car; it is still running. The car is beautiful, like new. It has been completely restored and is the subject of the short film below, shot in 2017 by Austin Newman, David’s son-in-law. When you watch the video you will note that it highlights the car as if it were a commercial. Austin is an accomplished video editor and YouTube personality.
David is driving the car in the film. Take a look.
Nice Ride. Thanks Austin for the memories you brought back. Thanks also to Jim Louder and his family for preserving this bit of local history.