Brunswick’s notoriously wide Maine Street was laid out in 1717 — when the town was still known as “Pejebscot” — and finally built in 1740.

The road was named “12 Rod Road” because of its width — 12 “rods,” or 198 feet. Postcards were still captioned with the name as late as 1915.

Bearing the widest Main Street in Maine, Brunswick is a town replete with “firsts.”

The first U.S. Census was taken in Brunswick in 1790, just four years before Bowdoin College was established as Maine’s first institution of higher learning.

Maine state historian Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. will present these facts and others in a presentation titled “The Evolution of Brunswick’s Maine Street,” a Brunswick Downtown Association and Pejepscot Historical Society event scheduled for 7:30 a.m. Thursday at Bowdoin College’s Moulton Union.

The two-hour presentation includes a slideshow of three eras of Brunswick’s Maine Street.

“Some of these photos and postcards date back as far as 150 years,” Shettleworth said.

He notes that “most towns’ (roads) were developed in haphazard fashion. But the breadth of 12 Rod Road in Brunswick was developed as part of the town plan. “We needed it because of the fort,” he said.

Travelers between Fort Pejepscot on the Androscoggin River and Maquoit Bay — essentially the full length of Maine Street — were always about 100 feet from the woods on each side, so passers-by had a certain “protection from ambush” in the street’s width, Shettleworth said.

Shettleworth, a Portland native who completed a doctorate at Bowdoin College, launched his career as an historian at age 14 when he joined the Sills Committee, which founded Greater Portland Landmarks in 1964. His writings on Maine history include his most recent publication, “Waterville,” published in 2012.

His slideshow will follow a 7:30 breakfast. Brunswick Town Councilor Margo Knight will also give a report on implementation of the Downtown Master Plan.

Register online at http:// brunswickdowntown.org/events or call 729- 4439.

PAT FRIEDMAN is a Times Record correspondent who lives in Brunswick.

‘Evolution of Brunswick’s Maine Street’

WHAT: talk
WHEN: 7:30 a.m. Thursday WHERE: Moulton Union, Bowdoin College
INFO: http://brunswickdowntown.org/events or call 729-4439.