Text by Mindy and Liza, students at Presque Isle Middle School
Edited by Presque Isle Historical Society
The building located at 422 Main Street and known today as the MFX building was originally built in 1887. One of the original tenants of the building was our local newspaper. This building survived numerous fires that destroyed most of Main Street, making it the 3rd oldest standing public building in Presque Isle. It did finally suffer some damage in the fire of 1927. The town’s first telephone switchboard was located in this building in Hodgden’s Plumbing. In 1958, Larry Thibodeau established Maine’s Farmers Exchange here. Larry, a Presque Isle institution, passed away at the age of 89 in December of 2004.
Sources:
Graves III, Richard A. Forgotten Times: Presque Isle's First 150 Years. Presque Isle, 2006.
Graves III, Richard A. Forgotten Times: A Walk Though History. Fort Fairfield, Maine: C3creative, 2007.