Colby College's Port Clyde investment reshapes Maine fishing village

Colby College’s arrival in Port Clyde is more than a real estate deal. It is a transfer of power in a village that lost its general store, restaurant and ferry terminal to fire, then absorbed another round of damage when January 2024 storms battered Maine’s coast.

The college completed its purchase of several waterfront properties in November 2025, including the Seaside Inn, The Barn, Squid Ink Coffee and the site of the former Port Clyde General Store. The deal, made possible by a donation from Dan and Sheryl Tishman through the NorthLight Foundation, will give Colby a physical foothold in one of Maine’s most recognizable working waterfronts and a central role in shaping what comes next.

That role grew out of disaster. The fire on the night of Sept. 27, 2023, destroyed the Port Clyde General Store and Dip Net Restaurant and heavily damaged the Monhegan Boat Lines building and wharf next door. Then early January storms added to the strain, causing more than $70 million in damage statewide and hitting Port Clyde and nearby Tenants Harbor especially hard. In a town where fishing, tourism and the arts have long shared the same narrow harbor, the losses were cultural as well as economic.

Colby announced on Aug. 27, 2025, that it would create the Center for Resilience and Economic Impact in Port Clyde, an interdisciplinary research-and-action center meant to help Maine communities respond to environmental, economic, cultural and public health crises. The center is slated to begin operating in 2026. Colby said it chose Port Clyde because of its existing ties to the area, including ownership of two nearby islands given to the college by the Wyeth family and used for arts and science programs, and because Dan and Sheryl Tishman urged President David Greene to take on the project.

The college says the center will include a restaurant at street level, offices and community space, lectures, workshops and student research internships. The Seaside Inn, a 12-room building dating to 1847, will house scholars and student researchers. Local coverage has said the Port Clyde General Store will not be rebuilt, even as a replacement wharf is planned for 2027.

For St. George, the town that includes Port Clyde and had a 2020 census population of 2,594, the stakes are unusually high. A college backed by private wealth can move faster than many public agencies, but it also raises a harder question: whether rescue from outside can preserve a village’s working character, or whether it will remake Port Clyde into something that serves newcomers, institutions and visitors first.