The north end of the Brunswick Mall as it appeared in about 1890. Courtesy of the Maine Historical Society

On July 4, 1825, a group of citizens armed with shovels, pitchforks, hoes, axes and scythes, gathered for a “general assault” on a public nuisance. The enemy before them was a wild and bothersome embarrassment “in a primitive and semi-barbaric state,” which these citizens swore to banish for the greater good of the community.

While future American President Franklin Pierce and literary legends Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne were still matriculating at Bowdoin College, Brunswick was still a relatively young community; however, much-needed changes were taking place.

On June 16, 1823, three men transferred a legal deed giving a wild property to all the “inhabitants of Brunswick” for the reasonable fee of “5 cents.” The deed specified that ownership of the land was “herein conveyed” for a “public walk or Mall.” And the deed warned, “If put to any other use, this deed shall be void.”

The Brunswick Mall sandwiched in between Maine Street and Park Row in 1910. Postcard image courtesy of Eastern Illustrating

The land was described as a slough where “wandering kine” or stray cows “were not infrequently mired.” It was a wet bog or swamp filled with black alder, “beaver were present” and a “board fence” surrounded this mosquito-infested menace. It was certainly, as Ira P. Hooker reported, “wonderful accommodations for grand concerts of the festive frog.”

Volunteers arrived by foot and by beast, with their oxen-pulled carts carrying tools, wheelbarrows and horse-drawn plows, for use in the great work which lay ahead. The “unsightly … deformity” of Brunswick was about to be set right, exactly where it stood, in the center of “the village,” along the “major travelled way” of Park Row.

Immediately, this army began to pry logs, pull roots, stumps, and clumps of bush and weed. Unlevel mounds of thatch and thistles were laid low, and the sunken portions of the swamp were lifted with fill. Brambles and thickets were cut out while boulders and rocks were repositioned. It was tough work on a hot day, but the betterment of the “village of Brunswick” was underway.

In the midst of the day, young boys carried “hogsheads [containers] of spruce beer” and “pails of current wine” as they helped women set tables on Green Street with “crackers and fish,” and other refreshments for these volunteer warriors. Much improvement on the project had been accomplished, yet much still remained.

The “open pond,” to blame for the flooding of many of the basements along Park Row and the west side of the Mall, remained to be filled in, and a brook that fed the pond still had to be plugged before the area would be left to dry over time.

For decades, the Fourth of July appears to have been an annual time when these citizens gathered to work on this long-term project of converting this “deformity” into the level, lush green space that we know of today as our Brunswick Mall.

The costs to convert this frontier-like obstacle to a more civilized state were mostly footed by the people of Brunswick, through “subscription.” By the summer of 1836, $300 was raised to replace the old fence and plant trees along the outer periphery of the Mall. More fill was brought in from time to time as progress continued.

Once a mosquito-infested swamp, citizens united to make this spot a “desirable and ornamental feature in the village” of Brunswick. Lori-Suzanne Dell photo

By 1867, the fence was once again rebuilt as time and weather had seen it “worn out.” By 1902, the fence required replacement yet again, only this time — with “the opinion of a great majority to have an open park” — the fence was finally and forever removed.

In 1890, a gazebo, flag pole and fountain greeted visitors at the northern end of the Mall. Today, the flag pole and gazebo are moved and the fountain has long since disappeared.

Then, in about 1895, when trolley service came to Brunswick, rail tracks leading to a pleasant but distant Merry Meeting Park flowed down Maine Street along the western edge of the Mall right over what is today a well-used sidewalk.

At the turn of the 20th century “Spanish War Square” was created at the far portion of the southern end of the Mall as a place of remembrance to a nearly forgotten conflict sparked by the (likely accidental) sinking of the USS Maine. Today, that overgrown spot is, in itself, nearly forgotten. However, a more recent veterans memorial has been erected at the opposite end of this grand Mall.

In 1898, a Village Improvement Association was created “to improve and ornament the Town of Brunswick.” For 125 years, this grand group of volunteers continues to carry on the work of those original citizens in maintaining and beautifying our Mall, and they continue to protect and preserve one of the most lovely, spacious and generous of our local Stories from Maine.

Historian Lori-Suzanne Dell has authored five books on Maine history and administers the popular “Stories from Maine” page on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.