Historic Sites In Maine. I taught American history for thirty years before I retired in 2018, and I have spent a good chunk of my retirement walking the ground where that history actually happened. Maine has more of it than most people expect.
Below are 10 places I keep coming back to. Some are run by the National Park Service. Some are run by the state, a college, or a historical society. A couple are privately owned, and I will tell you straight when one of them is hard to get into so you do not waste a drive.
Here is the quick version before we get into the details.
| Site | Designation | Managed By | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acadia National Park | National Park | National Park Service | Mount Desert Island |
| Roosevelt Campobello International Park | International Park | Joint US and Canada Commission | Campobello Island, New Brunswick |
| Appalachian National Scenic Trail | National Scenic Trail | National Park Service | Katahdin to Carlo Col |
| Saint Croix Island International Historic Site | International Historic Site | National Park Service | Calais |
| Maine Acadian Culture | Congressionally recognized heritage | National Park Service partnership | St. John Valley |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe House | National Historic Landmark | Bowdoin College | Brunswick |
| Winslow Homer Studio | National Historic Landmark | Portland Museum of Art | Prouts Neck, Scarborough |
| Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village | National Historic Landmark District | The Shaker community | New Gloucester |
| Wadsworth-Longfellow House | National Historic Landmark | Maine Historical Society | Portland |
| Kennebec Arsenal | National Historic Landmark | Private owner | Augusta |
10. Kennebec Arsenal
I am starting in Augusta with a place that comes with a warning. The Kennebec Arsenal was built starting in 1828 as a US Army ordnance depot on the east bank of the Kennebec River. Granite buildings, thick walls, the kind of construction the Army did when it meant a place to last.
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It stored and repaired weapons through the Civil War, then the Army handed it to the State of Maine in 1905. For most of the twentieth century the grounds were part of the Augusta Mental Health Institute. The Army did not keep using it through World War II, and you will see that claim repeated online, so I want to set the record straight.
Here is the part to know before you go. The Arsenal is a National Historic Landmark, but it is privately owned and has been the subject of years of legal fights over neglect and stalled redevelopment. There is no visitor center and no regular public tour. You can view the buildings from the public roads and the riverfront, and that is the realistic plan for a visit today.
9. Wadsworth-Longfellow House
From a site you admire from the curb to one you can actually walk through. The Wadsworth-Longfellow House on Congress Street in Portland was the boyhood home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the man who gave us Paul Revere’s Ride and Evangeline.
The brick house went up in 1785 and 1786, built by General Peleg Wadsworth, Longfellow’s grandfather. It was the first wholly brick dwelling in Portland. The Maine Historical Society runs it now, and the rooms are furnished with the family’s own belongings, which is rare. You are not looking at period reproductions. You are looking at the Longfellows’ actual things.
It is open seasonally, generally late spring through fall, with guided tours. The historical society’s research library sits right next door, which is a fine bonus if you are chasing a family connection.
8. Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village
In New Gloucester sits something you cannot find anywhere else on earth. Sabbathday Lake is the last active Shaker community in the world. The Shakers arrived here in 1783, and a tiny membership keeps the faith going to this day.
The whole village is a National Historic Landmark District. You can tour the 1794 Meetinghouse and several other buildings in season, walk the grounds, and visit the shop where the community still sells its famous herbs. I always tell people to keep their voices down and remember this is a working religious community, not a theme park.
The museum season usually runs from late spring into October. Check the day before you go, because the schedule bends around the life of the community.
7. Winslow Homer Studio
Out on Prouts Neck in Scarborough is the studio where Winslow Homer made some of the greatest seascapes in American art. He lived and worked here from 1883 until his death in 1910, and the crashing surf paintings everyone knows were painted with that exact coastline a few steps from his door.
The Portland Museum of Art owns the studio, restored it carefully, and runs small guided tours out from the museum. It is a National Historic Landmark. You cannot just drive up to it, so book the tour through the museum and ride out with the group.
Standing on that porch and looking at the water Homer painted is one of those quiet moments that sticks with you. Bring the painter in your life if you have one.
6. Harriet Beecher Stowe House
In Brunswick, near the Bowdoin College campus, stands the house where Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote most of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. That book moved the country toward war over slavery, and Abraham Lincoln is said to have called her the little woman who started the great war. The story is probably apocryphal, but the impact of the book is not.
The house is a National Historic Landmark and is owned by Bowdoin College. It has served different uses over the years, including as a faculty residence and college space, so public access is limited and not a daily walk-through. Check with the college’s Harriet Beecher Stowe House program before planning a visit, and treat the exterior and the surrounding historic district as the reliable part of the trip.
5. Maine Acadian Culture
Up in the St. John Valley along the Canadian border, the descendants of the Acadians have held onto their language and traditions for more than two centuries. Congress recognized Maine Acadian Culture in 1990, and the National Park Service works in partnership with local organizations to interpret it rather than running a single fenced park.
What that means for a traveler is a string of places across towns like Madawaska, Van Buren, and St. Agatha. The Acadian Village in Van Buren recreates valley life with relocated historic buildings, and the Tante Blanche Museum tells the story of the people who settled here after the British expelled them from Nova Scotia in the 1750s.
This is far northern Maine, a real drive from the coast, so build it into a wider trip. The living French heritage you find up here is unlike anything else in the country.
4. Saint Croix Island International Historic Site
Near Calais on the St. Croix River is the spot where French colonization of North America really began. In 1604, four years before Quebec and three before Jamestown, Pierre Dugua de Mons and Samuel de Champlain set up a settlement on this small island. The first winter killed nearly half the party.
This is the only International Historic Site in the National Park System, a designation that reflects the shared French, American, and Canadian story here. You cannot land on the island itself, but the mainland unit has a riverside trail, interpretive panels, and a series of bronze figures that walk you through the events of 1604 and 1605.
It is run by the National Park Service and the grounds are open year round. For the history of how Europe gained a foothold in the Northeast, this quiet riverbank is the place it started.
3. Appalachian National Scenic Trail
The Appalachian Trail runs about 2,190 miles from Georgia to Maine, and Maine holds the grand finale. The northern terminus sits atop Katahdin in Baxter State Park, and the last hundred-odd miles through the Hundred-Mile Wilderness are the most remote stretch of the whole route.
The trail is a unit of the National Park System, managed by the Park Service in cooperation with the Forest Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and a small army of volunteers. You do not need to thru-hike to feel it. Day hikes near Monson or up Gulf Hagas, the so-called Grand Canyon of Maine, give you the flavor without months in the woods.
If you do make the summit of Katahdin and touch that weathered sign, you are standing where the dream of a continuous mountain footpath, first proposed by Benton MacKaye in 1921, finally runs out of north.
2. Roosevelt Campobello International Park
One quick honesty note. This one is not technically in Maine. It sits on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, reached by bridge from Lubec, the easternmost town in the United States. I include it because almost everyone visits it as part of a Down East Maine trip, and you should too.
This was the summer home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The 34-room cottage is where he vacationed for decades and where, in 1921, he fell ill with the paralytic illness long diagnosed as polio. The park is run jointly by the United States and Canada, the only park in the world managed that way, through the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission.
Bring your passport, because you are crossing an international border to get there. The cottage tours and the grounds are well worth the stamp.
1. Acadia National Park
The top spot goes to the crown of the Maine coast. Acadia National Park covers about 49,000 acres, most of it on Mount Desert Island, and it draws close to four million visitors a year. It is the only national park in the Northeast and one of the busiest in the country.
The history here runs deep. The Wabanaki people have lived on this coast for thousands of years. The carriage roads, 45 miles of crushed-stone lanes with their handsome stone bridges, were a gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., who did not want cars ruining the place. Cadillac Mountain, at 1,530 feet, is one of the first spots in the country to catch the sunrise from October through early March.
Drive the Park Loop Road, climb Cadillac, walk out to Bass Harbor Head Light, and give yourself at least two full days. The National Park Service runs it, and a reservation is required to drive up Cadillac during the busy season, so plan that ahead.
Map Of Historic Sites In Maine
These ten sites spread from Portland in the south to the St. John Valley up north. If you only have a long weekend, base yourself near Portland for the Longfellow House, the Homer Studio, and Sabbathday Lake, then make Acadia a separate trip of its own. The far northern and Down East sites reward a longer road trip.
More Things To Do In Maine
Looking for more ways to explore the Pine Tree State? Have a look at our guide to the best things to do in Acadia National Park, our roundup of Acadia National Park facts, and our overview of the national park sites across Maine before you plan your route.
That is a wrap, folks. Ten places where Maine’s history is still standing, from a French island settlement of 1604 to the last living Shaker village. Get out there and see them for yourself.
