Richard Thompson used to summer in Wiscasset. He returned from New Orleans to live and work here nearly 10 years ago, after about two decades away. “I wanted to return to the town that was absolutely the first town I saw that had some authenticity to its origins.

“That was very appealing to me.”

But what he found wasn’t quite the same as when he left, Thompson said. “I saw that in 10 years, the town had changed, and it didn’t look like it was being cared for as I remembered, and only a few people seemed to really care about that ... And while I was very good at commenting about that, I did nothing.”

Now he’s doing something. Thompson is the newest member of the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission. The town created it with a 2015 ordinance, and Thompson believes it has an important role in keeping visitors coming.

Wiscasset isn’t a factory town; its product is tourism, so the town needs to maintain its beauty, the Ohio-born Thompson said.

“It’s just about, keeping the feeling of what this town was like 200 years ago, or what it was like 300 years ago. And maybe 300 years probably isn’t practical, because so much has changed. But the commission’s business is to have some oversight ... Otherwise, people are going to be going through (town) as fast as they can.”

The Maine Department of Transportation’s concepts for the downtown helped prompt Thompson to volunteer for the commission, the first town committee he has served on in Wiscasset. “It was what finally made me say, ‘Don’t just sit back and talk to all your friends about it, or go to meetings. You have to truly be involved.’”

Thompson manages French & Co. on Federal Street. The business has its own parking lot, so is not facing a loss of storefront parking if the changes happen, Thompson said. But he predicted that ones on Main Street will start closing if they lose theirs. And replacing Haggett Garage on Water Street with a parking lot won’t help retain the downtown’s beauty, Thompson maintained. “It’s not just that building we care about. It’s that whole look — street after street after street — that really makes this a gem.”

In that sense, Wiscasset and New Orleans’ French Quarter have a great deal in common, he said: It’s not about the style of the architecture, but the past centuries they represent.

Although Thompson has never served on a Wiscasset board until now, he said he brings organizational experience to his seat on the commission. In New Orleans, he chaired the board of then-hospice Project Lazarus; and Loyola University’s visiting music committee. He’s a current member of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council.