The future of The School House 1913 restaurant on Harpswell Neck is uncertain after a fire in an apartment above the restaurant on Nov. 28.
Despite a quick stop by firefighters and minimal damage to the restaurant space, the business has been closed since the fire. Its chef and co-owner says he is not planning to reopen, while the owner of the building says she will focus on repairs before deciding whether “to continue with the restaurant or put the property on the market.”
Property owner Helen Norton, a philanthropist and community investor who lives on Harpswell Neck, said repairs will begin as soon as possible. “That is my primary concern and I don’t know how long that might take,” she said in an email.
After more than two years of renovations prior to the restaurant’s opening, “it was heartbreaking to have to go through it again,” Norton said.
“There is an incredible amount of work ahead and during that time I will be formulating the future of the business and building,” she said.
Joe Arena, co-owner and executive chef of the School House and occupant of the apartment at the time of the fire, said the restaurant’s future was uncertain before the fire. He had hoped to stay open through Valentine’s Day, then take a break and potentially reopen around April 1.
“Maybe we would have opened back up, maybe not,” he said. “Things were very much up in the air.”
Arena said multiple factors have contributed to the uncertainty. His business partner and the restaurant’s general manager, Christopher Gardner, left the School House in September.
“It was a tough transition,” Arena said. He described Gardner as a detail-oriented manager who complemented Arena’s off-the-wall creativity.
“We had ourselves a crack team. We really did,” Arena said. “And life catches up.”
Gardner, in an email, said he left for his mental and physical well-being, citing long hours and burdensome expectations.
“It’s very sad to see it end like this,” Gardner said about the restaurant. “It deserved so much better.”
Arena and Gardner had leased the restaurant space through December, according to Arena, who planned to dissolve the company he had formed with Gardner and operate the restaurant with his own company in 2024.
Around October, Norton told Arena she was considering selling the property, according to Arena. After the fire, he said, it became clear to him that Norton did not want him to reopen the restaurant.
‘Black with smoke’
On the day of the fire, Tuesday, Nov. 28, Arena said he made coffee and left around 7:45 a.m. to drive his fiancee to work at Brackett Funeral Home in Brunswick, about 10 minutes away.
When he returned home and parked, he heard an alarm, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. He checked the restaurant, then his apartment, where the alarm was going off and the space was “black with smoke,” he said.
Arena got his Great Dane out of the apartment, then called 911 from the restaurant. He went back into the apartment and saw that the gas stove was on fire. “It had already spread to the backsplash and up to the cabinets,” he said.
Arena said he left the building and, when a Cumberland County sheriff’s deputy showed up, they crossed the street to the former Vegetable Corner and waited for firefighters to arrive.
David Mercier, fire chief for Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue, said firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from an open window and vents on the second floor. The firefighters who entered the building met with “near-zero visibility,” but located the fire and “very quickly” put it out, he said.
Mercier said the fire appears to have started at the kitchen stove, but he was not certain of the cause.
The Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the fire. On Monday, Dec. 18, almost three weeks after the fire, a spokesperson said the investigation was ongoing and the cause had not been determined.
Mercier described the damage to the apartment as “extensive,” but said the only damage to the restaurant was water leaking through the floor, which was promptly cleaned up.
“The response and the effort by the municipal firefighters in combination with the volunteers was instrumental in getting the fire early and preventing it from spreading to the rest of the building,” Mercier said. “It was a really good effort by everybody. It was a really good stop.”
Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue and Harpswell’s municipal firefighters had assistance from the Cundy’s Harbor Volunteer Fire Department and the Orr’s and Bailey Islands Fire Department, as well as the Brunswick Fire Department. The Topsham Fire Department provided backup for the remainder of Harpswell. Mercier estimated that at least 25 firefighters were on hand.
Arena thanked the firefighters for their speedy response.
“If not for them, there would be no School House left to talk of,” he said. “They’re the heroes.”
The building is insured, Arena said, although he did not have renters insurance to cover his belongings. About eight to 12 people were working at the restaurant, although none were full time except for Arena, and several have already found jobs, he said.
An ambitious vision
The fire appears to have brought an abrupt end to a six-year journey for the 35-year-old Arena, who has studied and worked in culinary destinations as far-flung as Italy and New Orleans.
He was going to community college and working at a Cheesecake Factory in his hometown of Rochester, New York, when he signed up for a class trip to Italy. When the class returned, he stayed to attend culinary school. He later finished his studies at the Culinary Institute of America in New York.
Arena toiled in kitchens from Colorado to New Orleans and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where a roommate from Biddeford raved about the joys of summer in Maine. In 2014, he was chef of the Auburn Colony, a historic seasonal enclave in South Harpswell.
He returned to the Auburn Colony in 2017, when he met Norton. Norton told Arena she had bought the School House property and invited him to open a restaurant there after renovations.
The building had been a schoolhouse from 1913 until the 1950s or 1960s, after which it was home to a series of restaurants and other businesses.
Norton said her oldest daughter attended school in the building until second or third grade. “In my heart that building and restaurant is so much a part of the history of the town,” she said.
She said family and friends warned her away from the restaurant business, but she felt that a year-round restaurant and gathering place on the Neck “was something needed in the town and hopefully wanted.”
Arena returned to the Auburn Colony in 2018 and 2019. Before the 2019 season, he was working at a steakhouse in Denver where Gardner was a server. Arena soon realized he had found someone to help him open the School House.
After the long renovation, the restaurant had its soft opening in October 2019.
“I had everything that I wanted — loved it, absolutely loved it,” Arena said about the transformed space. “I mean, how many times do you just get the opportunity to have your dream granted? I was very fortunate.”
Arena’s culinary vision was ambitious, and different from Maine’s traditional seafood-heavy fare. His menu was ever-changing, but always featured fresh pasta and a “showstopper” like his veal saltimbocca. He found many ingredients at the Brunswick Farmers Market, out of a dual commitment to fresh ingredients and a low carbon footprint.
The coronavirus pandemic was a blow to the restaurant, where the focus on atmosphere and experience did not make for a natural transition to takeout. But 2021 was “a whirlwind,” Arena said, when the restaurant could finally open for a full season, and the people poured in.
Norton said she was “very proud” of the restaurant’s “appearance and welcoming staff.”
The School House has been active in the community, hosting events for local nonprofits, including the Harpswell Anchor, Harpswell Santa Fund, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, and a local effort to support the people of Ukraine.
“We always came into this venture wanting to pay it forward,” said Gardner, the former general manager. “I do think we accomplished that to its fullest extent.”
In turn, Arena said, many in the community have reached out to express appreciation for the restaurant and offer support. “It’s a great feeling,” he said.
Arena is staying with his fiancee’s family down the road from the restaurant, where he plans to enjoy the holidays and wait until the new year to make his next move.
He said he would consider a return if circumstances change, but he doesn’t expect that to happen. He is disappointed, but looks back on the experience with satisfaction.
“I couldn’t be more proud of what we accomplished in that place,” Arena said.
