[NO-buhl-bur-row] is a town in Lincoln County, incorporated in 1788.

Settled in 1640, the town was probably named for a later settler, James Noble, Esq. His brother, Col. Arthur Noble, led an expedition to drive the French from Nova Scotia. A monument in the town remembers this Noble as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before incorporation on November 20, 1788, the area was known as Walpole. It annexed land from Bristol in 1815 and set off land to form Damariscotta on July 26, 1847.

The town’s colonial development dates from 1625 through a land grant from Indian sagamores; however, no actual settlement occurred because of property disputes that had to be resolved. Substantial settlement began after the Revolution, though the oldest house dates from 1767. Growing quickly, the town boasted 1,206 people in the first U.S. Census of 1790.

The town reached its early peak population in 1860 with 1,438 inhabitants. In 1970 it had dropped to 850, rebounding to 1,154 in 1980. By 1990 it had exceeded its historic high with a recorded 1,455 in the census of that year. Sharing the growth spurt of the mid-coast, its population in 2010 nearly doubles the 1970 figure.

 

Maine’s first recorded meteorite (and the second recorded in the United States) arrived shortly after statehood, between 4 and 5 PM on August 7, 1823 in Nobleboro.

Shipbuilding was once a major industry with twenty-six shipyards in town at the peak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throughout its history Nobleboro has remained a rural community, but in recent years, because of nearby lakes, rivers, and seacoast, about 37 percent of its inhabitants are non-resident “summer people.”

Where farming and fishing were once predominant, modern residents find employment at the Bath Iron Works, while professional people work in nearby towns. Elizabeth Coatsworth wrote many of her stories of Maine from her home in Nobleboro.

A large portion of Damariscotta Lake is accessible in the town. Nearby Great Salt Bay is protected by Maine legislation and is the state’s first marine shellfish protected area.

National Register of Historic Places – Listings

Chimney Farm

 

This 20 acre property on the edge of Damariscotta Lake, known as Chimney Farm, has been immortalized beautifully in the writings of Henry Beston and Elizabeth Coatsworth Beston. Taken together their literary careers spanned over a hundred years. Their genres, children’s stories, nature writing, historical fiction, poetry and local documentary, have been well received. And yet, as well known as they were in their time, critical evaluation of their long term contributions to literature have yet to be undertaken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coatsworth published over 112 volumes and won the Newbury Award for Children’s Literature in 1931 with The Cat Who Went to Heaven. Beston’s The Outermost House (1928) influenced Rachel Carson; was published in pocket sized editions for military personnel during World War II,  and has been cited as a benchmark of nature writing. As different as their writing styles and subject matter could be, much of their best subject matter was Chimney Farm, which they occupied from 1931 through the ends of their respective lives: Beston in 1968 and Coatsworth in 1986.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chimney Farm contain fields, gardens, stone walls, a house, barn, writing studio and cemetery located on East neck Road in Nobleboro. The East Neck is one of two peninsulas that protrude northerly from the southern end of Damariscotta Lake, an eleven mile long body of water that stretches from Jefferson in the north to Nobleboro and Newcastle in the south. To the west Deep Cove divides the East and West necks and Muscongus Bay defines the eastern edge of the peninsula.

 

Form of Government: Town Meeting-Select Board.

Additional resources

Northern Farm: A chronical of Maine, Henry Beston

Dow, George F. Bicentennial history [of] the First Baptist Church of Nobleboro, Maine 1793 to 1993 . Nobleboro, Me. First Baptist Church. 1993.

Dow, George F. Research Records. (Cataloger Note: Records (photocopies) compiled and used by Dow in his research on the history and families of Nobleboro, Me. . . . Mr. Dow was a resident of Nobleboro interested in the history and genealogy of the area. He collected these materials. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections]

Dunbar, Robert E. and George F. Dow. Nobleboro, Maine–A History. Nobleboro, Me. Nobleboro Historical Society. 1988.

Maine Map & Register Co. Souvenir of Nobleboro, Me. 1911. Brunswick, Me. Maine Map & Register Co. 1911.