Maine Industrial School for Girls

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Maine Industrial School for Girls
Established 1873
Opened 1875
Current Status Preserved
Building Style Single Building
Location Hallowell, ME
Alternate Names
  • State School for Girls
  • Stevens Training Center
  • Stevens School




History

Mrs. Mary H. Flagg of Hallowell was moved to provide for vagrant and outcast girls, and discussed this with friends in April 1872. She interested Mrs. Almira C. Dummer of Hallowell, and in December of that year, they offered to the Governor $10,000 from Mrs. Flagg, and a building site in Hallowell valued at $2,000 from Mrs. Dummer. In 1872 the corporation accepted the proposals.

The school opened for the reception of pupils January 20, 1875. Thirty-two were received during that year, two were placed outside the institution and the thirty remaining filled the school to its full capacity.

The complex became the State School for Girls in 1915 and continued housing girls until the early 1970s. In 1976, it merged with the southern Maine boy's reform school to become the Maine Youth Center in South Portland. The Center building was refurbished in 2020 and reused as apartments.