Steve Ryder has dismantled 300 pianos and turned them into art, tables, walls, chairs and more from his shop at 12 Pepperell Square in Saco, Maine. Find additional photos in the gallery below. Photos by Cy Cyr The first thing I noticed was hanging outside a garage door in downtown Saco. Birds made from piano keys. I was walking to lunch at Quiero Cafe with two friends when I spotted them about 50 feet away. Behind the birds were old pianos, furniture, clocks, and enough inte

Ten years after opening a tiny yoga studio in Saco, Sarah Spiegel has created one of Biddeford's most enduring communities. The Ocean She Built Dark clouds drifted across the sky above Biddeford Pool as Sarah Spiegel stepped into the grass and looked toward the horizon. For 45 minutes, the sun had remained hidden behind a thick layer of blue-gray clouds, leaving only hints of what might happen before nightfall. Then, just before disappearing below the horizon, it found a narr

Maureen Massey, left, and Linda McLaughlin, owners of Between the Tides in Biddeford Pool, Maine, have opened for their 16th season. Between the Tides in Biddeford Pool, Maine. Forty years ago, Linda McLaughlin received a collect call about a man she had never met. Actually, she received a collect call about two men. Neither of them was coming home. It was the mid-1980s, before cell phones, text messages, or any easy way to explain that everything was fine. Linda's husband an

The map hangs downstairs at Huston & Company. Hundreds of red pins stretch across Maine, New England, and well beyond, marking homes, libraries, schools, and universities where furniture built in Arundel eventually found a permanent address. The pins trace decades of work, from private dining rooms to some of the most respected academic institutions in the world. At first glance, the display feels like a complete record of the company's history. Then Saer Huston (pronounced '

More than a dozen school groups filled Hadlock Field during the Portland Sea Dogs’ Education Day game Thursday morning in Portland. Hadlock Field was loud before the first pitch. By 10:00 in the morning, school buses lined the streets outside the ballpark. Students poured through the gates in waves, teachers counting heads while volunteers pointed groups toward the concourse. Inside, the smell of popcorn and grilled hot dogs drifted through the cool spring air as players stre

Grady O'Connor, 16, runs Courtside Cards and Collectibles which is located inside of the SOFIVE Soccer Center at 400 North Street in Saco, Maine. The first thing you notice about Grady O’Connor is his height. At 16, he’s already 6'4", which makes him easy to spot across the indoor fields at the SOFIVE Soccer Center in Saco. Kids run drills. Parents line the sidelines. Games echo off the walls. And tucked just off the action, behind a glass display case filled with cards, is G

Tori and Abby opened Bird Bones Tattoo Studio on Elm Street in Biddeford in 2024. The Entrance Tori, left, and Abby in the lobby of Bird Bones Tattoo Studio. The door opens into something that doesn’t feel like a waiting room. A desk sits just inside, but it’s surrounded—framed, stacked, layered. A mounted muskrat looks out from the wall to the left. Above it, turkey wings. Behind the desk, shelves hold objects that feel collected over time, not ordered all at once. The wall

Michael Macomber and Katie Pinard outside Elements on a cold March morning in Biddeford. Inside, the shop has been a gathering place on Main Street for 13 years. On the second day of March, winter in Biddeford feels less certain. The cold is still sharp enough to stiffen your fingers, but the light has changed. It comes in clearer now, a brighter blue stretched over Main Street. Snowbanks along the curb have thinned and grayed at the edges. Meltwater runs in narrow ribbons to

Nick and Emily Conley, of Waterboro, are on pace to sells tens of thousands of bags of their Ruff Pine Dog Treats in 2026. The story of Ruff Pine Dog Treats starts with a purchase on Facebook Marketplace. In 2019, Nick and Emily Conley are twenty-one, recently out of college, and five years into a relationship that started when they were sixteen. Nick is from Biddeford. Emily is from Saco. They buy a 1993 Ford Falcon camper van and decide to travel the country. They don’t

Jacqui DeFranca and Jon Denton, owners of Sweetcream Dairy in Biddeford, Maine. The science, the stubbornness, and the shared joy that brought Jon Denton back home to Biddeford — and let his wife Jacqui build a life around it The Sweetcream Dairy storefront. Sweetcream Dairy sits on Main Street in Biddeford like it belongs there, like it always knew it would end up exactly where it is. Not because the path was obvious. Not because it was easy. But because this is what happens

Sarah Hoover, program director at Apex Youth Connection in Biddeford, Maine. From the outside, Apex Youth Connection doesn’t try to impress you. The building on Granite Street isn’t pretty. It’s scrappy. It looks like a place built for use, not for show. The kind of place that gets the job done and doesn’t apologize for it. Inside, the order reveals itself. Bikes and bike parts are everywhere, but nothing is careless. Handlebars hang in clean rows. Cranks, chains, gears — al

Heather Paquette, President of Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine. Photo by Cy Cyr Outside the Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn, the morning felt unmistakably like Maine. The sun was bright, the air was cold, the wind was sharp, and snow clung to the edges of the parking lot. It was the kind of day that makes you hurry from your car to the door. Inside, the world felt entirely different. The warehouse moved with purpose. Volunteers sorted boxes beneath lights that cast winte

Michelle and John Corgan outside Bell Farm Shops. They purchased the property in 2017 and have transformed it into one of the most beloved shopping destinations on the Seacoast. Bell Farm Shops in York has a presence that stops people in their tracks. The tall red barn at 244 US Route 1 looks like it could be the set of a movie. The cupola rises above the rooftops with a horse weathervane. The morning sun rests on the shingles and the red picket fence. Wind chimes move on the

Kathleen "Pidge" Pigeon, owner of Lucky Pigeon Brewing in Biddeford, Maine. Biddeford, Maine — The hum of a canning line cuts through the stillness of an afternoon brew day. Inside a restored brick building off Laconia Street, sunlight pools across the floor, the air rich with the earthy sweetness of fermenting grain. A group of regulars trade stories at the bar while a brewer wipes condensation from a stainless-steel tank. Behind the counter, greeting everyone by name, stand

Silas Wolff's face glows from the fire of a coal forge while creating a chef knife. Photo by Cy Cyr. Kennebunkport, Maine, hums with early - Fall quiet. The scent of salt and pine mixes with the faint metallic tang of steel in the air. Out back of an old family barn, beside stacks of wood and a coal forge glowing orange, a German Shepherd named Bjorn thumps his tail and drops a stick at the feet of his owner, Silas Wolff . Inside the workshop, sparks burst like fireflies as

Katie and Cody Sherer, owners of Mainely Blooms at 1903 Portland Road in Arundel, Maine. Photo by Cy Cyr. Three Generations on the Same Patch of Maine Soil Here on a long, humming stretch of Route 1 in Arundel, a family’s land has been put to work for three generations—and three entirely different businesses. That continuity is the quiet power behind Mainely Blooms , the perennial nursery and flower farm owned by Cody and Katie Sherer at 1903 Portland Road in Arundel, Maine

Mike Norcia, owner of Sternlines and Forewind Golf

A boat tour around Wood Island Lighthouse in Biddeford, Maine