A Maine native who spent nearly two decades preserving, researching and educating people about historic buildings in New York City has been named the new executive director of Greater Portland Landmarks.

Kate Lemos McHale is filling the role vacated by Sarah Hansen, who resigned last July following the departure of three other staff members. Fundraising professional Laird Yock had been filling in as acting executive director for the last year. McHale started Monday.

The nonprofit was founded in 1964 to protect historic buildings and landscapes in the area. The organization works with developers to ensure new buildings fit in with existing neighborhoods, advocates for preservation at the municipal and state levels, and educates homeowners and the public about local architecture and history. It is also the steward of the Portland Observatory on Munjoy Hill.

The group most recently made headlines when it sued the city of Portland after councilors voted to allow the Portland Museum of Art to demolish the former Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine at 142 Free St. for its sweeping expansion.

McHale, who is from Damariscotta, previously served as director of research for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, a position she held for over seven years. Before that, she spent over a decade at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners as a senior associate and director of research, working to preserve and reuse historic buildings and to facilitate public approval processes. McHale has also taught classes on historic preservation at the Pratt Institute School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

At the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, McHale managed a staff of 12 and directed the designation of landmarks and historic districts in the city and the processes that led up to those designations, including research, surveying and evaluating.

She said she enjoyed designating important sites for LGBTQ+, African American, Latino and women’s history, as well as buildings that were architecturally significant.

“I was able to … increasingly focus on cultural significance and the opportunity for landmarks to really reflect and represent diverse history and to really tell the stories of all New Yorkers,” McHale said in an interview Monday.

Examples of this included designations of the homes of James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington, as well as the former Colored School No. 4 in Manhattan, a segregated school built in the mid-19th century.

McHale said she hopes to bring a similar focus on cultural history to her work with Greater Portland Landmarks.

“I think preservation more and more is getting at how to tell those important stories and really acknowledge history honestly and inclusively,” McHale said. “I think telling stories of communities through the buildings that we can appreciate today really helps root us all to this place.”

Greater Portland Landmarks received two grants in 2022 to fund research and direct focus toward diverse and underrepresented communities. A National Trust for Historic Preservation grant is helping the group locate sites in Portland and “missing stories of significance” related to the area’s Armenian American, Chinese American and African American populations. And a Maine Historic Preservation Commission grant is supporting research with the University of Southern Maine meant to identify structures and objects “owned, occupied, or built by LGBTQ+, Jewish, and African American Mainers” or associated with their culture or history.

McHale said growing up in a Lincoln County ship captain’s home built in 1840 first piqued her interest in old buildings and architecture.

In college, she found preservation as a way to work with historic buildings and architecture professionally rather than only academically. She received a bachelor’s in architectural studies from Brown University and a master’s in historic preservation from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Bruce Roullard, president of the board of trustees for Greater Portland Landmarks, said the group chose McHale as executive director because of her experience in historic preservation as well as her skills in working closely with municipalities.

The organization will be working on a new strategic plan with McHale, and she will be in charge of hiring a director of philanthropy-development and a director of advocacy, according to Roullard.  The former director of advocacy, Ian Stevenson, resigned last May, and Kerrie Leclair, former director of philanthropy, left last July.

“One of our main strengths is our work in advocacy, and that will continue to move forward in line with our mission with the hiring of Kate,” Roullard said. “We’re just very excited to have her on board, so that we can keep our mission going.”

Roullard did not immediately say what McHale will be paid. The former executive director earned $75,136 a year, according to tax filings. A job posting on the organization’s website describes the salary as between $80,000 and $95,000, depending on experience.

McHale has moved to Cumberland with her husband and son and said she is excited about living in Maine again and being close to her mother.

“I am really looking forward to making connections in Portland, working with the trustees, of course, raising awareness about the work of the organization, fundraising,” she said. “This is the 60th anniversary (of the organization), and so there’ll be a chance to celebrate that and the great legacy and also to look ahead.”

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