GEORGETOWN

In the midst of celebrating its 300th anniversary, the community of Georgetown is holding a walking tour of the island’s historical structures Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Kicking off at the Georgetown History Society building, the tour will provide a glimpse into 19th century life in Georgetown center, which was once a hub of activity in the southern Midcoast.

“When Georgetown was founded in 1716, it also included the surrounding areas of Woolwich, Arrowsic, Bath, West Bath and Phipsburg,” said Ginny Hopcroft, Georgetown Library and Museum committee chair. “The towns began to separate around the Revolutionary War.”

Arrowsic was the last to secede in 1841, leaving Georgetown on its own as a thriving waterfront community.

Europeans settled in the area for the bountiful cod and shellfish harvests as far back as the 1500s, and Georgetown’s beating heart has always been its fishing industry. By the 19th century, the village offered stores, schools, churches, sawmills, gristmills, shipyards and many homes to house workers and their families. Much of this activity was focused around Georgetown’s town center, where many original buildings still stand today. The town center was set apart from the ports, however, creating a rustic setting that still stands intact today.

“The town center was one of the earliest parts of town that was first settled, and it stayed settled,” said Kathy Gravino, a member of the Georgetown Historical Society’s board of directors and guide on the walking tour. “The interesting thing is that progress passed it by. By the early 1900s, the shipyards in Bath were building bigger, better ships, and the yards down here were no longer needed, and workers began to move north. Furthermore, Georgetown center didn’t have a deep water port, so the river steamers didn’t pull in here. They used the West Georgetown port.”

The town population also began to tail off after the Civil War.

“It’s that old story of people going off to war and ending up in a far flung place, finding other opportunities,” said Jeanne McGowan, former historical society president and current volunteer. McGowan said that Georgetown sent around 100 men to the Civil War, and hardly any returned.

At the turn of the century, high-paying jobs out of state lured many folks away from Maine’s fishing villages.

“In the early 1900s when the factory industry boomed, men would leave for Mass. to work at cotton, watch and shoe factories,” said Hopcroft.

The population continued to decrease through the 1920s, bottoming out in 1930. But the town saw a big turnaround not long afterward.

“The population started to expand again in the ’40s, post World War II,” said McGowan. “We had an influx of ‘rusticators,’ people who came here to vacation and artists who invited their friends. This generated business for locals. BIW provided many jobs, too.”

“Summer people would keep coming back, and a lot of them eventually moved here,” added Hopcroft.

Today Georgetown’s population stands at around 1,100.

The population drop-off of post Civil War Georgetown ultimately meant that a lot of the buildings in the town center only received minor renovations and stand today as they did back then.

“This is why the tour focuses on Georgetown center,” said Hopcroft. “It’s where the town’s oldest buildings are located, and it’s the most similar to the 19th Century.”

The first stop on the tour and one of the highlights is the First Baptist Church, which was built in 1829.

“This was the first church building on the island,” said Hopcroft. “It was a free will Baptist church, which was unique at the time. They did full-emergent Baptisms year-round at a little beach down the road. They also encouraged reading your own bible and having your own relationship with God. They were free spirits here.”

Added Gravino: “Georgetown has historically earned the reputation of people with free spirits.”

In the 1880s the church was moved down the hill to a sturdier location, a process that many buildings in Georgetown underwent during the late 19th Century.

“They turned buildings around using two oxen and a capstone, and then rolled the buildings downhill or along the road on logs,” said Hopcroft. “This happened a lot in the winter, when oxen or horses could pull them over the snow or across a frozen cove.”

The Georgetown town hall was relocated using this method, along with some of the other houses that will be on the tour.

Many of the buildings on the tour were once used for other purposes, such as the Red Brick Schoolhouse, which is now a private home, as well as the Robinhood Meeting House, which began its life as a place of worship.

“The meeting house has a long history as a church, but more recently has been in private hands,” said McGowan. “It was a restaurant for 18 years, and now it’s owned by a couple who want to make it a public gathering spot.”

McGowan commends citizens who respect history and do their business with the community in mind.

“You look at these buildings and you’re grateful that someone has taken hold of them and—with a few alterations— kept true to their history,” McGowan said. “It’s a lovely commitment from the community, people recognizing history and wanting to maintain that, to hold onto history.”

And the folks who volunteer at the historical society realize that they have an important role to play, too.

“We are aware that what we are doing now (with the tour) is part of history, and we embrace that,” Hopcroft said.

To learn more about the Georgetown’s 300th anniversary and Saturday’s walking tour, visit georgetownhistoricalsociety.org.

bgoodridge@timesrecord.com