About ACAME

The Armenian Cultural Association of Maine was founded by a group of Mainers, Armenian and non-Armenian, who wished to continue the long tradition of keeping Armenian cultural identity alive in the Pine Tree State. ACAME members also support charitiable and humanitarian efforts in the Republic of Armenia.

Maine's Armenian community is one of the oldest Armenian settlements in America. The first permanent immigrants arrived here in the late 19th century to escape persecution in their native Turkey; they would be followed by hundreds of others in the years leading up to the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Founded in 2003, ACAME's first accomplishment was erecting a monument that memorializes the 1.5 million victims of the Genocide, and Maine's first Armenian immigrants. The granite monument and accompanying benches are located at the corner of Cumberland Avenue and Franklin Arterial in Portland, on the edge of the neighborhood now known as Bayside. It was once the site of Maine's original Armenian settlement, and it remains the most culturally diverse neighborhood in the state.

Monument on Cumberland Ave.

Read more about Maine's Armenian community and Portland artist Stephen Koharian in this 2009 profile by Chris Busby in The Bollard: "Atrocity" in the Forest City.