featured sponsor

Camden Maine - a quintessential sea-side town at the foot of Camden Hills

Camden is a picturesque town in midcoastal Maine, nestled at the foot of Camden Hills on Penobscot Bay. Its slogan is “Where the Mountains Meet the Sea” and is considered by many visitors to be one of the most beautiful places in New England. Camden Maine is also an affluent town, with many wealthy families owning properties in the area. It has a population of 5,254. Although the town is considered affluent, it still has a small town sensibility, with friendly people, and gorgeous views and preserved buildings and historic structures.

A Brief History of Camden and other notes of historical interest

It was Captain George Weymouth of the Archangel who first laid eyes on the hills of Camden during his voyage in 1605. He briefly set foot on Camden Hills, then called Penobscot Hills, on June 12, 1605. In 1614, Captain John Smith (the English explorer of "Jamestown" and "Pochantas" fame) arrived to explore the area. He described the terrain and Camden Hills in his personal log as "the high mountains of Penobscot, against whose feet doth beat the sea". But it was not for another 150 years before Camden became a permanent settlement on this part of the Maine coast. In 1769, the first real settlers arrived, after the survey of the Waldo Patent by the Twenty Associates in 1768 named the town as part of the Megunticook Plantation. Megunticook meant “great sea swells” in Indian. The first recorded settler was in 1769, Mr. James Richards. However, the town got its name from the first Earl of Camden, Charles Pratt, after the American Revolutionary War in 1791. Pratt was a sympathizer with the colonists during the American Revolution and the town was named after him in honor of his active support of the American Colonists.

During the first 100 years of the town's existence, Camden Maine had a prosperous economy due to numerous industries such as lime production, ship building, anchor manufacturing, and wool manufacturing. The profitable lime industry was located in Goose River nearby. Goose River separated from Camden in 1891 and became a town itself now called Rockport. This deprived Camden from the lime industry profits, as well as the territory of Goose River itself.

In 1892, the Camden business district suffered a damaging fire as the downtown area was nearly burned down. The fire started in a three-story wooden building on Main Street known as the "George H. Cleveland" block. Most of the downtown business district was destroyed, and once the smoke had cleared and the town fathers had time to consider the matter, they decided to rebuild in brick rather than wood. However, apparently George Cleveland, in whose three-story building the fire had started, did not wait for such a decision, because almost before the smoke had cleared, he was busy putting up another wooden building on his property, and he soon opened a store there to meet the needs of a community suddenly deprived of most of its normal sources of supplies. Today, much of the admiration for Camden's idyllic main street and downtown business district is due to the fortuitous decison to rebuild most of its downtown buildings in brick after the fire of 1892.

Camden as a Summer Resort Destination

Because of Camden’s natural scenic beauty and accesible harbor location, wealthy people from all over the country started acquiring properties and building summer houses here in the late 19th century. Today, sprawling estates and mansions can be seen all over Camden (many of these estates have been converted into bed and breakfast inns). During the late 1800s to the early 1900s, these families also showed generosity towards the town itself and contributed much to the further development of Camden. The Camden Opera House, Camden Amphitheater, and Camden Public Library are only some of the examples. As a result, the town gradually developed into a summer vacation destination, tourist hotspot and resort town, and even a retirement community. Camden also has a large fleet of tall-masted schooners called "Windjammers", a type of merchant sailing ship used in the 19th to 20th century, their type recognizable through their large masts and sails. These windjammers are part of the legacy of Captain Frank Swift who started the leisure cruise schooner business in the 1940s in Camden.

Camden’s economy also boomed in the 1990s when the world's largest independent issuer of credit cards, MBNA (Maryland Bank, National Association) located their offices into the former Knox Woolen Mill building, restoring the old buildings in the process as well as generating hundreds of jobs for the people in town.

For people visiting the town, Camden Maine offers a lot of activities and good places to see. To name just a few, nature lovers will certainly enjoy a trip to the Camden Hills State Park. It is a 5,500 acre park full of nature trails, wonderful views of hills and lakes, a large campground and picnic area. The Camden Harbor Park and Camden Amphitheater are also good destinations for tourists, especially for those who are appreciative of historic landmarks.