Winthrop

Maranacook Lake in Winthrop (2013)

n addition to its recreational attractions, the town is a suburban community serving both the Augusta and Lewiston-Auburn areas. See photos. Winthrop is the birthplace in 1899 of Delphia Louis “Del” Bissonette, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Temple

At the western terminus of Maine Route 43, Temple, with its cluster of small mountains and small ponds, lies just northwest of Farmington. Settled in 1796, it was the site of an early and strong community of Quakers. In the 19th century, though largely a farming community, it was home to three sawmills, an excelsior and stave mill, a grist mill, and a carriage factory.

Naples

Long Lake on Route 302 in Naples (2013)

Blessed with ample access to Long Lake, Sebago Lake at the intersection of U.S. Route 302 and Maine Routes 11, 35 and 114, Naples has long been a vacation resort community. See photos. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne have sung its praises. The Songo Lock, built about 1830 and now shared with the town of Casco, linked Long Pond and Brandy Pond with Sebago Lake

Eliot

Country Living (2012)

in York County, settled in the 1630s, on the east side of the Piscataqua River dividing Maine from New Hampshire, is a growing residential community serving Kittery and Portsmouth. See photos. Its population expanded by almost 12% in the 1990-2000 decade. Eliot was home to Maine’s first Quaker Meetinghouse built in 1776.

China

in Kennebec County near Augusta, incorporated 1818, is the birthplace of a member of Congress and a Quaker educator-author. China Lake, around which Quakers and Baptists settled in the early 19th century, dominates the community and its history as a recreational center. See photos.

Casco

Songo Lock in Casco (2003)

settled by Europeans in 1771, in Cumberland County, incorporated in 1841, is on the north shore of Sebago Lake. The Songo Lock, built about 1830, linked Long Pond and Brandy Pond with Sebago Lake, allowing boat passage from Harrison to Portland. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author and Bowdoin College graduate was its most prominent resident.

Vassalboro

has sufficient space to support farming as well as serving as a residential area for people working in Augusta and Waterville. See video and photos. Benedict Arnold stopped here to obtain a canoe on his way to Quebec. Site of Oak Grove Seminary in 1844, then Oak Grove Coburn school in 1970, then the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in 2001.