Ellsworth, Maine
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T0SHEA
N 44° 32.549 W 068° 25.449
19T E 545745 N 4932289
Surrounded by other National Register buildings, Ellsworth's City Hall stands on a hill above the town's business district. Ellsworth is the seat of Hancock County, with the courthouse situated just west of city hall.
Waymark Code: WMTTNW
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 01/06/2017
Views: 4
With a present population of around 7,750, Ellsworth has been, in recent years, Maine's fastest growing city. Standing primarily on the east side of the Union River, Ellsworth was one of the several areas in dispute between the English and the French throughout the 17th century, even into the 18th century. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 Ellsworth became part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Immediately, Ellsworth was settled by a group of English settlers. Shipyards quickly sprang up along the Union River, with the first schooner, the Susan and Abigail being built at Ellsworth in 1773.
Originally known as the Union River Settlement, then Plantation No. 7 and at times Bowdoin and New Bowdoin, in 1798 the citizens petitioned to incorporate under the name of Sumner. Unbeknownst to them there was already a Sumner in Maine and the town was incorporated under the name Ellsworth, after Oliver Ellsworth, the Connecticut delegate to the 1787 National Convention. It is believed that Ellsworth was the first to suggest the name United States of America for the new country.
The first county seat of Hancock County was Castine, replaced by Ellsworth in 1838. By 1859 the town of 4,000 was the centre of a diversified economy, industries in the town including sawmills, gristmills, brickyards, shipbuilders, pail factories, edge tool factories and box-making establishments, with some smaller trades active, as well.
Ellsworth has suffered two major disasters in the 20th century, the first being The Great Flood of 1923, which carried away the bridge over the Union River and several major business buildings and wharves. The second was The Great Fire of 1933, which destroyed at least half of the commercial district, including the city hall, on May 7, 1933. As a result, Ellsworth now has a beautiful 1934 vintage Georgian Revival brick city hall. See the photos below.