Alexander

Pleasant Lake and Lakeside Cottages in Alexander (2013)

is a town in Washington County named for Alexander Baring (Lord Ashburton) the British envoy who, along with Daniel Webster, settled Maine’s northern boundary with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. It contains Barrows and Pleasant lakes, and has substantial frontage on Meddybemps Lake.

African Americans

Rock Rest, a former travel inn in Kittery that served Black Americans in a manner similar to "Green Book" travel guide (2018)

were in Maine at least as early as 1736 when a church in York purchased a slave for its minister. John Brown Russwurm was Bowdoin College‘s first black graduate, in 1826. The third black to graduate from an American college, he went on to become the co-founder and co-editor of the country’s first black newspaper,…

Acadia Acadian

Acadian Museum and Madawaska Historical Society (2003)

Originally a French colony, Acadian lands in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia were passed back and forth between the French and English by various treaties settling European wars. The last of these, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, gave the land to England. For a time the Acadians lived peacefully with the English. In…

Fort Western

Fort Western complex with the Main House (2001)

In 1625, the Plymouth Colony Pilgrims sailed to the Kennebec River in hopes of establishing a trading relationship with area Indians. By 1628 the Pilgrims were operating a year-round trading post just south of where Fort Western now stands. The Pilgrims made the voyage in a 38-foof open-hulled, single-masted sailing vessel called a shallop. A…

Augusta Historic Register

                   Lithgow Library, 2017 Addition to the 1896 StructureRegister of Historic Places – Augusta 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  Much of Augusta’s history is tied to…

King, William

Portrait of Governor William King

(1768-1852) the first governor of Maine, was a wealthy business owner and politician. At one point, the wealthiest ship owner in Maine, he was active in politics representing first Topsham then Bath in the Massachusetts legislature at various times between 1795 and 1819. He was the leading force behind the movement for separation of Maine…