AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Efforts to turn a 102-year-old state-owned home into a museum highlighting freedom of the press have taken a step forward in Augusta, Maine.

The Gannett House was a wedding gift from William Gannett to his son, Guy, who lived there for about 10 years before moving to Portland when the publishing company he founded with his father purchased the Portland Press Herald. It’s been owned by the state since 1973, but Republican Sen. Roger Katz of Augusta is sponsoring a bill to allow the state to sell the house back to the family for fair market value.

The Kennebec Journal reports (http://bit.ly/WB0994) that the family wants to turn the house into a First Amendment museum that would also chronicle the family’s history in Maine’s media industry.

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