Blue Ledge Carpentry brings family history to Friend Memorial project

Chris Pickering is overseeing the construction of a new wing at the library his ancestors once helped establish

Three Friend brothers—Victor, Leslie and Robert—helped found Brooklin’s Friend Memorial Library in 1902. Chris Pickering is a member of the Friend family on his mother’s side. Photo by Steele Hays.

July 21, 2026

By Steele Hays

BROOKLIN—Chris Pickering and his company, Blue Ledge Carpentry, were thrilled to win the contract to build the new $3 million wing of Brooklin’s Friend Memorial Library, but for Pickering it is not just a business deal—it’s personal.

Pickering is a member of the Friend family on his mother’s side, a family with deep connections to the Friend Memorial Library.

“This project is pretty near and dear to me,” Pickering said. “I made it very clear when I talked to [project architect] Matt Elliott that I wanted this job and I was trying really hard to get it.”

“There is a lot of pride that the Friend family has in this and I think about the ones who came before and aren’t here now [..] they would want me to be doing this job,” he said.

The library is named for the Friend family because of the role played by three Friend brothers—Victor, Leslie and Robert—in helping found the library. The brothers, who were born and raised in Brooklin, made a fortune in the canned baked bean business in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1900, they built the first roller skating rink in Brooklin on land now occupied by the library. The rink was a success, but some local residents disapproved of it. According to a pamphlet written by Emily Blair Stribling about the library’s history, some disliked the rink because of the way young people flocked there for late nights and romance.

In 1902, when supporters launched an effort to build a new library building, the Friend brothers offered the rink and land to them for $1. The rink building became the library for several years. Then, in 1910, library patrons raised enough money to build a new building and the Friend brothers donated $1,000 towards its construction.

By the early 1950s, the library’s collection had outgrown the building and an effort was initiated to build an expansion, led by Katharine White, one of the library’s strongest supporters and the wife of author E.B. White.

Mrs. White asked the Friend family for help, and they sent her a check for $3,000.

Pickering has long been interested in his family’s history and when an economic downturn caused his construction business to slow down a few years ago, he had time to research his family history.

He documented his family tree on both the Friend and Pickering sides and found that both families arrived in the American colonies around the same time—in the 1630s: John Friend in Wenham, Massachusetts, and John Pickering in what’s now Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In the 1760s, Benjamin Friend—Pickering’s great, great, great, great grandfather—settled on the Blue Hill Peninsula and began acquiring land. Pickering believes the Benjamin River in Sedgwick is named for him.

Members of the Friend family still own land along Eggemoggin Reach. The property includes a rocky point along the shore known as Blue Ledge, the inspiration for the name of Pickering’s construction company.

Pickering’s father was a Maine State Police officer and the family moved several times during his childhood. He spent most of his school years in Cherryfield and then Surry, graduating from George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill in 1997.

Construction of the new library wing is about five weeks ahead of schedule, Pickering said, adding that he’s been moved by Brooklin residents’ enthusiasm and interest in the project.

“The push and interest and energy people have for this project is something I’ve never experienced before,” he said. “The whole town has a lot of energy behind this job. Everybody on the crew feels it.”

The new wing will house the library’s Maritime Research Center and its collection of more than 6,000 maritime books, plans and documents donated by Jon Wilson, founder and former head of the WoodenBoat School and WoodenBoat Magazine, as well as 150,000 photographic slides donated by renowned marine photographer Benjamin Mendlowitz.

Pickering said he is confident his crew can complete the project on schedule by the end of April 2027, giving the library’s staff the month of May to install furniture and shelves, move books and other collections and meet the target for opening the library to patrons in June.

“I’ll be proud of it and I think the town will be proud of it,” Pickering said.