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Ever wonder why the Maine highways and byways are not cluttered with billboards like many other states? You can thank a York resident, Marion Fuller Brown. Only four states in the U.S. have banned billboards - Hawaii in 1920’s, Vermont in 1968, Maine in 1977 and Alaska in 1998.
Marion championed legislation to eliminate billboards in the state of Maine and co-founded the National Coalition for Scenic Beauty, which would later become Scenic America.
In 1939, she married Henry Morrill Fuller and moved to her beloved adopted home, York, Maine where they purchased Ram’s Head Farm in 1945. Marion became involved in local and state civic affairs, including joining and later serving as President of the Piscataqua Garden Club which may well have sparked her interest in conservation and the environment. In 1960, she took her first official civic duty with an appointment to the Maine Milk Commission. However, tragedy struck in 1962 when Henry died in a haying accident, leaving Marion a 45-year-old widow, alone to raise her four children. Marion had to rebuild her life and start a new life for herself. It was an atypical life for that time.
Marion focused her attention on the York community and the state of Maine. In 1964, she became the first woman to chair the Maine Milk Commission. Driven by this love for the land, Marion recognized that to truly have an impact, she would need to operate on the political stage. In 1966, she became the first York woman to be elected to the Maine State Legislature, where she served until 1972.
It was during her last term in the legislature, that Representative Marion Fuller Brown sponsored legislation that banned billboards on highways throughout the state of Maine. At the time, there were more than 2,500 off-premises billboards in Maine, and outdoor advertising was a controversial issue. Once the legislation was passed and took effect on Jan 1, 1978, outdoor advertisers challenged the law in a case that ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981. The Supreme Court upheld a ruling by a federal district court in Maine and billboards were removed.
The final billboard came down via chainsaw in 1984 and it is believed that Marion is in the photo as the second person from the right. Numerous challenges to the “Billboard Ban” law have occurred over the decades but none has been successful.