A residential community serving the greater Portland area for over a hundred years, the City has developed independent economic resources. See photos. It is part of the Port of Portland and home to a major railroad yard and fuel tank storage facility. The Southern Maine Community College campus includes Fort Preble, named for Commodore Edward Preble.
The 1842 South Solon Meeting House in Solon, is a period piece well preserved, with colorful murals depicting religious themes on the walls. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Meeting House is located about five miles Southeast of Solon village. The Maine Historic Preservation Commission has compared the meeting house to others, …
The town lies on the Weskeag River, which broadens into several large coves before emptying into the Muscle Ridge Channel. In addition to the main village, Pleasant Beach, Waterman Beach, and Spruce Head villages hug the shore on Penobscot Bay. Spruce Head Island, connected to the mainland by a bridge, juts into Muscle Ridge Channel, a favorite passage for boaters seeking the protection of the outlying islands.
Located between Sheepscot Bay and Booth Bay, it is connected by a swing bridge to the town of Boothbay Harbor, and the casual visitor might not assume the town with two lighthouses was on an island. See photos. At the height of the summer, traffic is often backed up at the bridge as boats pass. Townsend Gut is the narrow waterway that separates the two towns. It is a shortcut from Boothbay Harbor to the Sheepscot River. The general store in West Southport village has been an institution for over a century.
It lies on the southwest entrance to Somes Sound, diagonally across from Northeast Harbor, a village in the town of Mount Desert. Southwest Harbor has been both a fishing and summer resort community from its earliest days as a town. See photos. Maine Route 102 begins at entrance to Mount Desert Island and leads directly south to the main village of Southwest Harbor. Here the Wendell Gilley Museum celebrates the life and work of Gilley, a pioneer of decorative bird carving. South of the harbor, the small villages of Manset and Seawall face the entrance to Somes Sound and the Cranberry Isles.
Located on the east-west Maine Route 6 crossing eastern Penobscot and northern Washington counties, the town has a substantial area in wetlands. See photos. One account has the name commemorating “extensive fields abounding in springs.” The village is centered around the crossroads of Route 6, Park Street (Routes 169/170), and Shep Road.
Settled by Acadians, the name derives from the parish church that was established in 1890. Farming and lumbering have been this St. John Valley area town’s historic economic base. Located on the northwest shore of Long Lake, Maine Route 162 from Frenchville passes through the main village, then hugs the lake shore and continues along nearby Mud Lake.
At the junction of Maine Routes 23, 43 and 152, the village lies at the southwestern tip of Indian Pond. The three and one-half mile Pond (sometimes called Indian Lake, or Big Indian Lake) is maintained by a dam at the park in the main village.
The St. Francis River, which forms the northeastern border with Canada along with the St. John River, joins the St. John at the town of St. Francis. Across the St. John lies Madawaska County, New Brunswick. The St. John River forms the northern boundary of this small community, which has been declining in population for the past two decades. It is the last organized town on Route 161, which follows the St. John River from Fort Kent.
In a park near the town office, St. George and the dragon reenact their famous battle. See photos. The Fort St. George’s memorial is nearby.St. George was the site of granite quarries and was the birthplace of the Granite Cutters Union in 1877, the first in the state’s history. The town may be better known by some by its villages of Port Clyde, at the southern tip of its long peninsular, and Tenants Harbor.
With the St. John River as its northern boundary, the town is located nearly at the end of Maine Route 161, a dead end road that travels west from Fort Kent to serve the small communities along the River. The Plantation has several modest sized lakes, including Wallagrass Lakes (Lakes 1 and 2) in the southeast, Wheelock Lake in the northeast, and Hunnewell Lake in the west. It hosts two lots of Maine Public Reserved Lands totaling 1,167 acres.
Its main village is Sherman Station on the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad line and Maine Route 11 just across the town line from the Town of Sherman. Stacyville Village is in the southwest of the township; Siberia village is in the center on the Grindstone Road. That portion of Route 11 in Sherman Station Village serves as the “Main Street” for the town, with community buildings and businesses.
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.
A farming town, Starks once boasted a canning factory to which farmers would bring corn, squash, pumpkins, and other produce each fall. See photos. The “corn shop,” as it was known, closed in 1964. The now abandoned Grange Hall was the site of many community dances and socials at least through the 1950’s. The winding Sandy River, the site of several ferry crossings, constitutes the town’s eastern boundary. A small chapel is located near an old cemetery on the River Road.
Just 20 miles northwest of Bangor and adjacent to Newport, the town is a growing, but still rural community. Settled in 1800, it was soon organized as a plantation for election purposes. The post office opened in 1829. In the 1880’s Stetson was home to three sawmills, a grist mill, Stetson Cheese Factory, and a carriage factory.
This Washington County fishing and summer residential community projects two peninsulas (Dyer Neck and Petit Manan Point) divided by Dyer Bay into coastal waters. See photos. A small section of Penobscot Indian Territory is located at Dyer Harbor on Dyer Neck. The main village lies at the head of Gouldsboro Bay on U.S. Route 1.
Named for the Swedish capital, the village lies on the Little Madawaska River, just off Maine Route 161 and just north of New Sweden, also part of the Colony. The village, essentially off the main highways, is not “on-the-way” to anywhere. This small community, with a continued significant reliance on agriculture and a declining population, still supports three churches: Catholic, Baptist, and Lutheran.
The town lies at the junction of U.S. Routes 1 (east to Bucksport) and 1A (north to Bangor). See photos. Fort Point is a peninsular, just north of Sears Island, that extends almost to the center of Penobscot Bay at its northerly reaches. British Governor Pownall built Fort Pownall there in 1759. Fort Point State Park marks the southern end of Fort Point Cove. Sandy Point Beach is at the northern reach of the cove.
Though named for the Massachusetts town of the same name, the stony landscape also reflects its title. An excellent mountain climbing region, it is located near the New Hampshire Border in the White Mountain National Forest. East Stoneham is the principal village. The town is home to Camp Susan L. Curtis, named for the daughter of the former Governor. The closest Maine Route is number 11 where, at North Lovell, one may venture into Stoneham’s secondary roads.
ts name implies the great granite quarries, four of which were developed after 1870 and supplied material for many buildings in New York City and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Fishing and, increasingly, summer residences provide the mainstay of the local economy. Stonington consistently lands more lobsters than any other port in the State.