Bath Historic Register

“The Sewall Mansion,” 963 Washington Street, was built in 1844, in a late Federal Style. Redone in 1894 by John Calvin Stevens in Colonial Revival Style. (2013)

National Register of Historic Places – Listings Photos, and edited text are from nominations to the National Register of Historic Places researched by Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Full text and photos are at https://npgallery.nps.gov/nrhp  Bath Historic District [Roughly bounded by High, Beacon, and Court Streets, U.S. 1 and Kennebec River] In this area Bath’s prospering…

Freeport Historic Register

House on Upper Mast Landing in the Harraseeket Historic District (2017)

National Register of Historic Places – Freeport    Mallett, E. B., Office Building [Mill Street] E.B. Mallett Office Building (2016) Perhaps more than anyone, Edmund Buxton Mallett, Jr. (1853-1923) shaped the town’s character. In 1883 he moved from Pownal to launch his empire. Between 1884 and 1892, he built and operated two shoe factories, a…

Lewiston Historic Register

Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston (2001)

National Register of Historic Places – Listings – Lewiston Photos by James Henderson, and edited text are from nominations to the National Register of Historic Places researched by Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Full text and National Register photos are at https://npgallery.nps.gov/nrhp Androscoggin Mill Block [269-271 Park Street] Due primarily to demands for an increasing labor…

Historic Preservation Commission, Maine

Maine Historic Preservation Commission (2001)

The Commission is responsible for the identification, evaluation, and protection of Maine’s significant cultural resources as directed by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. It is located at 55 Capitol Street in Augusta. It consists of eleven members as follows: The Commissioner of Transportation or  representative, the Commissioner of Conservation or representative and 9…

York

1787-1794 John Hancock Warehouse and Wharf in York (2018)

Most of the town’s inhabitants are located between U.S. Route 1 (inland) and U.S. Route 1A which runs along the coast. Its population has more than doubled in the past thirty years, and grew by nearly 31 percent between 1990 and 2000. Beaches and cottages characterize the coast.

Woolwich

Woolwich Shore on the Kennebec River from Thorne Head in North Bath (2010)

Woolwich, across the Kennebec River from Bath and with long shores on Merrymeeting Bay, is home to two nature preserves. Settled in the 1600s, it has several historic buildings. Alewives have been a historic part of the community.

Wiscasset

is on U.S. Route 1 and the Sheepscot River. See photos and videos. With many historic structures, the town was host to “The Greenland Expedition of 1925,” which included explorers Richard Byrd and Donald McDonald. Since 1918 Camp Chewonki has been offering outdoor programs here. The town was once best known for its Maine Yankee Atomic Power plant.

Waterville

Waterville is a regional service center for northern Kennebec and southern Somerset counties. See photos. Its downtown and the Kennedy Memorial Drive commercial strip provide business and professional services. It has been home to several U.S. Senators and Maine governors. Colby College is here.

Waterford

Crooked River in East Waterford (2003)

The main village (see photos) lies on the shore of Keoka Lake, and State Routes 35, 37 and 118 provide easy access to lakesides, and to the larger communities to the south. The Artemis Ward House commemorates the birthplace of Charles Farrar Browne, the 19th century humorist. North Waterford, at the junction of Routes 35 and 118, is home to the town’s fairgrounds. The general store there provides gas and basic groceries.

Topsham

Recently the downtown (see photos) has witnessed a renewal with modern buildings. Topsham has been a very rapidly growing community both in population and in commercial development.The area of the Topsham Fair Mall is located adjacent to Interstate 95. Pejepscot Village was once an active community when the Pejepscot Paper Mill was in full production. Falls in the Androscoggin River between Topsham and Brunswick encouraged the development of paper and textile mills which dominated the economy into the 20th century.

Standish

Daniel Marrett House (one of several historic buildings) in Standish, on East Ossippee Trail (2018)

Named in honor of Captain Miles Standish, the military leader of the Plymouth Colony, the town has a very long shoreline on Sebago Lake in its southwest corner, including its Lower Bay. See photos. In the 19th century, the Oxford-Cumberland Canal allowed passage of boats from Harrison to Portland. Steep Falls was a thriving village historically, with its excellent water power on the Saco River and the railroad station in its midst. Both a recreational area and suburb of Portland, the town is served by six Maine highway routes.

South Berwick

Counting House Day Lily Memorial Park at the Salmon Falls River (2018)

Maine’s oldest educational institution, Berwick Academy, was established here in 1791 when the town was part of Berwick. See photos. South Berwick is the birthplace of Sarah Orne Jewett, who attended Berwick Academy for four years — her only formal education. The town is accessible to the coastal communities of York and Kittery via Maine Routes 91 and 236.

Searsport

Albert V. Nickels House, now A. V. Nickels Inn, on south side of East Main Street, U.S. Route 1, in Searsport (2015)

The town has two areas with industrial potential on Penobscot Bay. See photos. In addition to substantial resources of the Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport has recreational opportunities at Moose Point State Park on Penobscot Bay, and frontage on Swan Lake inland at the northwest corner of the town.

Saco

One half of the Biddeford-Saco metropolitan area, the city has its own extensive beach and Ferry Beach State Park. See photos. It is one stop on AMTRAK’s Downeaster rail service. Occupying the east side of the Saco River as it enters Saco Bay, the city is the eleventh largest community in Maine.

Rumford

Deacon Hutchins House (1979)

Year Population 1970 9,363 1980 8,240 1990 7,078 2000 6,472 2010 5,841 Geographic Data N. Latitude 44:31:19 W. Longitude 70:35:50 Maine House District 115 Maine Senate District 18 Congress District 2 Area sq. mi. (total) 69.9 Area sq. mi. (land) 68.6 Population/sq.mi. (land) 85.2 County: Oxford   Total=land+water; Land=land only [RUM-frd] a town in Oxford…

Rockland

The Farnsworth Museum (2005)

a city in, and the county seat of, Knox County, it is the home to the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Maine Seafood Festival, a historic working waterfront, historic structures, and birthplace of notable cultural and political figures. Located on U.S. Route 1, the city is a regional service and retail center.

Paris

1856 Paris Hill Academy Building (2019)

The Paris Hill neighborhood has several architecturally interesting old homes, while South Paris has been the industrial and manufacturing center. See photos. On the Stearns Hill Road the old Hungry Hollow schoolhouse sits on a small plot. South Paris village, split by the Little Androscoggin River, is the main population center and is half of the Norway-South Paris community.

Newfield

The old center of Newfield village was destroyed by the great forest fire of 1947. See photos. The Willowbrook Historic District covers this area and the buildings that survived the fire. In 1984 the application to establish the historic district reported “Very little change in the buildings or landscape has occurred in the last one-hundred years so that the sense of time and place of a remote southwestern Maine rural community of the 19th century remains strongly present.” At the source of the Little Ossipee River, and dotted with ponds and streams, Newfield is a rapidly growing community about twenty miles northwest of Sanford