One of Several Houses of interesting design in Norway (2003)

[NOR-way] is a town in Oxford County, incorporated on March 9, 1797 from Waterford Plantation. After annexing an unincorporated gore in 1821, it swapped land with Paris (1859, 1861).

Apparently the town was not named for the Scandinavian country. A clerical “correction” of the originally proposed “Norage,” the Indian word for falls, resulted in the name Norway.

Maine: A Guide Downeast notes the following:

Humorist Artemis Ward learned the printer’s trade at the Norway Advertiser-Democrat in the village center, and Statesman Hannibal Hamlin as a lad was a chore-boy in the same office.

A Popular gathering place for cracker-barrel philosophers for many years was the Weary Club, founded by the paper’s editor, Fred W. Sanborn.

Artist Vivian Akers, Charles Asbury Stephens, writer of juvenile fiction, Novelist Hugh Pendexter and Don C. Seitz, a New York World editor, had homes in Norway. For his trip to the North Pole, Explorer Robert E. Peary had snowshoes made by Melle Dunhan of Norway.

Norway has a substantial number of interesting, unique homes not typical of most Maine towns. (See the Historic District below.)

The town is the birthplace of Donald Barrows Partridge, a U.S. Representative, town clerk, and principal of the high school in Canton.

---

Norway-South Paris is a community of two adjoining towns in which Maine Routes 26, 117, 118, and 119 converge. It is a retail center for southern Oxford County and includes a commercial strip with the usual array of auto dealerships and fast food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pennesseewassee Lake at five miles in length, the largest of several in the town, abuts the main village and contributes mightily to the recreational opportunities in the area.

 

---

Form of Government: Town Meeting-Select Board-Manager.

Additional resources

Barnes, Diane. The Oxford Hills: Greenwood, Norway, Oxford, Paris, West Paris and Woodstock. Dover, N.H. Arcadia Publishing. c1995.

Brunelle, Jim. Maine Almanac.

Foster, J. Emily. The Legend of Barjo Restaurant: The Life of Josephine McAllister Stone. Norway, Me. MeJeffEmy Editions. Lisbon Falls, Me. Soleil Press [distributor]. c2001.

Isaacson, Dorris. Maine: A Guide Downeast.

Lapham, William Berry. The History of Norway, Maine: a reprinting of the 1886 edition on the occasion of the town’s bicentennial year; including a new foreword by Donald L. McAllister. Somersworth, N.H. New England History Press, in collaboration with the Norway Historical Society. 1986.

“Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Properties of 2003” http://www.mainepreservation.org/Endangered/03.shtml

*Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Augusta, Me.   Photos and edited text from are from nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.

Noyes, A. Oscar. Diaries, 1862-1878. (Cataloger Note: Diaries of A. Oscar Noyes of Norway . . . for various years from 1862 to 1878. . . . observations about the weather, his business affairs, social activities and family life. [Also] diaries of his brother Frank H. Noyes, also of Norway, for various years between 1872 and 1919. [Also] the daily weather, events happening in Norway, his activities and family life. Amos Oscar Noyes was born in 1837 . . . . owned a drug and book store there and served as the town treasurer. . . . Frank Herbert Noyes was born in 1856 in Norway and was president of the bank there.)

Noyes, David. The History of Norway: Comprising a Minute Account of its First Settlement, Town Officers, . . . . (Cataloger Note: Reprint. Originally published: Norway, Me. : D. Noyes, 1852.) Salem, Mass. Higginson Book Co. 1997.

Whitman, Charles Foster. A History of Norway, Maine: From the Earliest Settlement to the Close of the Year 1922. Norway, Me. (Lewiston, Me. Lewiston Journal Printshop and Bindery). 1924.

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 were at https://npgallery.nps.gov/nrhp

Bennett, Nathaniel and Elizabeth, House

[West side of Crockett Ridge Road, 1.4 miles north of junction with Maine Route 117] Built in 1792 and enlarged in 1812, the Bennett house is a two-story, Federal style frame house whose modern ell extends to an English style barn. It was part of a 150 acre farm first occupied by Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bennett who came from New Gloucester. In 1790 twin brothers Anthony and Nathaniel Bennett purchased adjoining lots and apparently built houses to which they brought their families in 1791 and 1793, respectively. Nathaniel (1770- 1855) had married Elizabeth Blake (1769-1856), the sister of Anthony Bennett’s wife, and they both lived in this house until their deaths. Since the Bennetts had no children, the property descended to their nephews and nieces who sold it in 1857 to Edwin A. Morse.

Morse occupied the farm for the duration of his life, and thereafter it was acquired by Don Carlos Seitz, the former editor, assistant publisher and general manager of the New York World. Seitz appears to have acquired the property for use as a gentleman’s farm, since he had done much to preserve the old buildings. He named the property “Cedarbrook Farm”. In 1927 Seitz’s estate sold the farm to Ernest Hutchins who, with his wife, operated the property as a tourist home.

Judging from the Greek Revival appearance of the front and west gable end doorways, as well as one mantelpiece in a first floor back room, it is evident that a remodeling occurred about 1830. The main block of the Bennett house is a virtually intact example of a well finished rural Maine farmhouse dating from the late 18th and early 19th century.

Its interior stenciling is a  distinctive example of this form of early 19th century interior decoration applied to many Maine houses. Here, a sky blue background is overpainted with horizontally arranged rows of flower stems that are comprised of two buds (portions of which are carefully shaded and highlighted) and a group of two leaves, each of which is separated by a small daisy-like yellow flower.

The Broad Street Historic District, shown here, is significant for  its architecture spanning a half century from 1849 to 1900. The street features homes from the Greek Revival period to the Late Victorian.

Camp Cinnamon

The Camp was founded as a private hunting club in rural Norway. Hunting camps and clubs are common in northern Maine. Camp Cinnamon is a good example of a specific type of hunting camp: a single building with a local membership in a rural location relatively close to member’s homes. Members were mostly local men who had grown up together and acted like a fraternal organization. The camp building evolved over time from about 1895 to 1940. A stable was built around1900. In 2021 the main house was reported sold in 2018. The address was 37 Camp Cinnamon Road in Norway according to a real estate business  in 2021.

Norway Historic District

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Roughly bounded by Pearl Street, Danforth Street and Greenleaf Avenue, Pennesseewassee Stream] The district presents a remarkably detailed image of Norway’s growth and development. From its otherwise humble beginnings in the 1780s, Norway grew into an important commercial and manufacturing center during the 19th century. The prosperity enjoyed by its residents is abundantly evident in the collection of buildings that bear testimony to their cultural, economic and social achievements. Several houses are named for members of the Cummings family “the leading family of industrialists in Norway” according to the author of this nomination to

the National Register.

Families by the names of Stevens, Hobbs and Parsons were among the first to arrive from older communities such as Gray and New Gloucester, Massachusetts.  These settlers initially occupied log houses covered with weatherboards. By 1789, a grist and sawmill had been established in the area of present-day Norway village. The 1790 census placed the town’s population at 448, most of whose livelihoods were tied to agriculture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Town of Norway was incorporated on March 9, 1797. Earlier a school house had been built, and in 1796 the town’s first religious body, the Universalist Society, was organized. Norway village itself appears to have shared in the general development of the area. By 1805 the school-age population warranted the construction of a separate educational building. Norway experienced steady growth throughout the first half of the 19th century, largely based on its position as a trading center for the surrounding area. The perception of the community’s future development was surely enhanced when in 1826 Asa Barton moved his newspaper the Oxford Observer from the neighboring town of Paris Hill to Norway.

                                   Norway Main Street (1987)

Norway Main Street (2003/2021)

This District embraces the most architecturally and historically significant group of buildings in this centrally located Oxford County community. It is comprised of a wide variety of commercial, fraternal, governmental, public, religious, and residential structures whose dates of construction span the 19th and early 20th centuries.