WAL-dowe-bur-row] is a town in Lincoln County, incorporated on June 29, 1773. Originally Waldoborough, it was named for General Samuel Waldo and incorporated from the plantation known as Broad Bay.

A settlement attempted in the 1730’s was destroyed by Indians, but a second attempt in the 1750’s, promoted by Samuel Waldo, son of the General, became a permanent one.

According to Isaacson, a grave marker in the Old German Cemetery reminds a visitor of the town’s history: “This town was settled in 1748 by Germans who immigrated to this place with the promise and expectation of finding a prosperous city, instead of which they found nothing but wilderness.” (p. 259) The swindler was none other than General Samuel Waldo.

The town swapped land with Bremen in 1830, 1853, and 1856 before attaining its current boundaries.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, granite quarries provided the town with a prosperous economic base.

A branch of the Granite Cutters’ Union was established in 1899; the Quarrymen’s Protective Union followed in 1902.

 

 

 

 

 

Now the local economy is supported by artists, authors, and crafters. Several alpaca farms produce finished yarns, rugs, and other fiber products.

According to its planning department:

“The Medomak River is the most productive clam flat in the State of Maine. . . . Waldoboro has a stable and growing agricultural base which includes produce, hay, livestock, horse stables, blueberry fields, Christmas trees, and nursery operations.”

Moody’s Diner, opened in 1934, has been made famous by Maine humorist Tim Sample, whose hilarious routine has created an image of a down home atmosphere – justifiably.

Orff’s Corner Community Church in North Waldoboro was established in 1839 by George W. Genther.  In 1895 the bell tower was added. U.S. Representative and shipbuilder Isaac Reed was born here 1809.

Along the Winslow Mills Road are two apparently abandoned buildings: a church at about number 988 and a meeting hall, possibly a grange, nearby.

Most people know Waldoboro by its location on U.S. Route 1, where convenience stores populate the commercial strip.

Boyington Preserve is a 25 acre parcel of blueberry fields on Clarry Hill,leased to and harvested by local blueberry farmers.*

Burkett Mill Preserve has 395 acres with a mix of cut-over woodland, more mature forests, and several wetlands.*

The Osborn-Finch nature preserve, on Dutch Neck, consists of red spruce, northern red oak, and balsam fir bordering an old field with frontage on the Medomak River.

Reef Point Preserve is a 55 acre, wooded parcel with nearly 1,000 feet of frontage on the Madomak River.*

Goose River Peace Corps Preserve is a 54 acre wooded parcel with wetlands and 700 feet of frontage on the Goose Rivera, featuring a short loop trail.*

*Managed by the Madomak Valley Land  Trust.

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

Additional resources

Biscoe, Mark Wyman. Merchant of the Medomak: Stories from Waldoboro Maine’s Golden Years, 1860-1910. Newcastle, Me. Lincoln County Publishing Co. 2004. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections; Maine State Library]

Chadbourne, Ava Harriet. Maine Place Names and The Peopling of its Towns.

Gross, Esther. (ed.) Waldoborough, 1773-1973: 200 Anniversary: A Pictorial History. Waldoboro Bicentennial Committee. 1985. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections]

Isaacson, Dorris A. Maine: A Guide Downeast.

*Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Augusta, Me.   Text and photos from National Register of Historic Places: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/xxxxxxxx.PDF and http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/photos/xxxxxxxx.PDF

Hutchins House: 82000769.PDF
Ludwig, Godfrey, House: 80000238.PDF
German Church and Cemetery: 70000050.PDF
Reed, Isaac G., House: 05000796.PDF
U.S. Customhouse and Post Office: 74000180.PDF
Waldo Theatre: 86002434.PDF
Waldoborough Town Pound: 76000103.PDF

Miller, Samuel L. History of the Town of Waldoboro.  Wiscasset, Me. Emerson, printer. 1910.  [Library of Congress] http://archive.org/stream/historyoftownofw00lcmill/historyoftownofw00lcmill_djvu.txt (accessed October 10, 2012)

Payne, Frederick G. 200th Anniversary Old German Church and Meeting House, Waldoboro, Maine. Waldoboro, Me. Ladies Auxiliary: Trustees of the German Protestant Society of Waldoboro, Maine. 1972? [Maine State Library]

Stahl, Jasper Jacob. History of Old Broad Bay and Waldoboro. Portland, Me. Bond Wheelwright Co. 1956.

Waldoboro, Maine. Planning Department. “Waldoboro Facts, Figures & Data.” http://waldoboromaine.org/planningDevelopment/factsFigures.pdf (accessed May 14, 2012)

National Register of Historic Places – Listings

German Church and Cemetery

[1 mile South of Waldoboro Village on Maine Route 32] General Samuel Waldo offered inducements for European immigration and in 1752 got Germans to found the settlement of Waldoborough. This church built in 1772, was moved over ice to its present location in 1794.

At that time the church was an austere frame house owned by 32 German Lutherans. There were no box-like pews, galleries or hanging pulpit back in the 1790s. The church was served for more than 20 years by a series of unlettered pastors. Then at least two ordained ministers came to the church. During the 19^th century attendance slowly declined as later generations no longer spoke German, the language of church services. Eventually the church was abandoned and is maintained as a memorial by the German Protestant Society.*  [Roger E. Miller photo]

Hutchins House

[77 Main Street] The Hutchins House is one of the most distinguished residences architecturally in the state. Ostentation evident in the Victorian design was apparently intentional.

The house was built for “Aunt Mary Hutchins”, as she was known, widow of Captain Joseph Clark, builder of the famous Palmer fleet of five-masted schooners in Waldoboro. In 2019 this large building was a funeral home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to local lore Aunt Mary and her sister had been in constant competition since childhood. When the sister married well and caused her husband to build her a fine house in town, nothing would do but that Aunt Mary should surpass her. Left wealthy by her husband she set out to do this. That she succeeded is clearly demonstrated by this handsome residence.

 

The 1879 Hutchins house is one of Maine’s most dramatic houses in Mansard style with extensive Stick style detail.* [Frank A. Beard photo]

Ludwig, Godfrey, House

[Maine Route 32] Muscongus, or Waldo Patent, Waldoboro, then known as Broad Bay, was first settled between 1733 and 1740 by Scotch-Irish and German immigrants encouraged by General Samuel Waldo, the patent holder. Largely destroyed in the early 1740s during Indian conflicts, the settlement was revived after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. In 1742-53, General Waldo’s son, Samuel, visited Germany and obtained about 1500, giving Waldoboro a Germanic flavor. In 1772, a German Lutheran church (photo above left) was built.

In 1780, Jacob Ludwig was the first German to serve as Representative to the Massachusetts General Court, reflecting his position of leadership in the community. He was a shrewd, thrifty, intelligent, and ambitious man, entirely self-educated. He realized Waldoboro would become an English community so he mastered the language, law, practices and ways of English life. This made him a leader among his people in the 1790’s. Childless, he was devoted to his nephew, Godfrey, son of his brother Joseph. He spent long hours training him in the lore and learning that he had acquired. In 1799 he presented his protege with a generous piece of good farmland on which Godfrey built the sturdy brick. Though Godfrey never achieved public recognition equal to that of his uncle, he was a widely respected prosperous farmer who, after 1820, became a strong supporter of Methodism to the extent that his house became a stop for circuit riding ministers to conduct services. The Union Circuit, of which the Ludwig House was a part was the earliest established in eastern Maine and extended from Union southwesterly through Waldoboro as far as Round Pond.

The use of the house for services resulted in the construction of its most interesting feature. Built as it was on a central hall plan with end wall fire places, there was no room large enough for meetings. Consequently, the hall walls were rebuilt with hinges along the ceiling so that they could be swung upward into the two front rooms thus combining them, along with the hall, into one large room occupying most of the floor area of the main part of the house. The kitchen was in a small ell. This white painted brick capestyle house with its black painted trim stands out as a landmark recalling Waldoboro’s German heritage as well as the early Methodist circuits in eastern Maine.* [Frank A. Beard [photos]

Reed, Co. Isaac G., House

[60 Glidden Street] Col. Isaac G. Reed was one of the most influential men in Waldoboro between 1808 and 1847. He was a patron of genteel culture, an arbiter of puritanical religion, an indefatigable lawyer, a respected Colonel in the local militia, an influential politician, and the scion of one of the town’s most successful families. He first bitterly fought against statehood, only later to craft its identity by helping to design the State Seal. The lovely Federalstyle home that Reed and his family built is befitting a man of his status, but it was also emblematic of the cultured qualities that Reed and a few of his contemporaries advocated in this midcoast shipbuilding town.

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Reed (1783-1847) was born in Littleton, Massachusetts and, after having passed the bar, and become a lawyer, migrated to Maine, first to Jefferson in 1807 and then to Waldoboro in 1808. He married the widow of a wealthy merchant, George Smouse, who was also related to another well established family, the Millers. A very large, unfinished mansion on Jefferson Street was purchased and completed, and it was here that Isaac and Jane Reed were to live and bring up their large (six children and one step daughter) family.

Isaac, while establishing himself as a successful lawyer, also became very involved with military affairs and was appointed a colonel in the Waldoboro militia. In 1812 a second war with Great Britain had erupted. In 1814 a British fleet appeared off Camden; the Waldoboro troops were called to the Town House and with Col. Isaac at their head prepared to march. They joined up with other volunteers at Camden. After a week of anticipation during which no shots were fired, they returned to Waldoboro, camped out at the unfinished Reed Mansion over night, then dispersed.* [Christi A. Mitchell photos]

Another Isaac Reed, a U.S. Representative, was born in Waldoboro in 1808, probably a son of Isaac G. Reed.

U.S. Customhouse and Post Office

[Main Street] This once fine building, in the heart of Waldoboro village, was  the hub of all commercial activity in the Customs District of Waldoboro. The town, at the head of Muscongus Bay, was the trade center for the Lincoln and Knox County area and all towns drained by the Medomak River. It was one of the important shipping and shipbuilding ports of 19th century Maine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The District of Waldoboro was created in 1799. The original wooden customs building was destroyed by fire in 1854 and by 1857 a new combined Post Office and Custom House was completed. In 1913 the customs district was abolished and building was used as a public library until 2007 when a new one opened. A new post office was built shortly after 1913.

Waldo Theatre

[Main Street] Unique among small town movie theaters in Maine, the 1931 Waldo was designed specifically for motion pictures. Built in the depths of the Great Depression, the movie craze was sweeping the country providing an inexpensive escape from hard times. The Theatre was highly successful and showed films through the mid-fifties when it closed. It was used briefly as a Masonic Hall and occasionally for live theater. [See photo above.]

It is one of the first envelope (building within a building) structures. When warm air circulates between inner and outer partitions, human bodies provide much of the space heat on even the coldest day. It accommodates 400 patrons, nearly half of whom sit in the balcony. Indirect lighting in one of three colors illuminate the walls, changing the mood at the flip of a switch. The architect reversed the traditional plan by slanting the floor down from front to back and tilting seats so patrons may watch the elevated screen. Some seats were varying widths; some had headphones. It was described by the Association of Motion Picture Owners of America as one of the best designed small theaters in America.*

Waldoboro Town Pound

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Washington Road] In 1819 citizens of Waldoboro voted to rebuild the town’s old wooden cattle pound, apparently built in 1785. The result stands in a remarkably complete state, just north of the village. Currently owned by the Waldoborough Historical Society, it serves as a reminder of the less formal, more subsistence way of life in rural America.* [More on cattle pounds in Agriculture]

Wetherill Site, Address Restricted