The pond at West Bowdoin was man-made by the removal of clay deposits used to make to make bricks in the 1820's and 30's. The Cox Brothers owned a sawmill run by this dammed water power and used the same mill to thresh grain. Later they converted to a steam powered system. In later years the property was used for the cutting and storing of ice.

The Haigh Mountain grist mill drew its power from the dammed Cathance River. The citizens of the area jointly built the mill dam, and the mill was operated as needed by Elisha Tarr. The grinding stones are presently a part of the collection of grist mill stones at Thomas Point, Brunswick, Maine.

This Lewis Road home was an early saltbox style originally owned by Capt. John Brown. The property included Brown's Sawmill. In later years Frederick Meacham owned the home and installed an electric generator, making this house probably the first in Bowdoin to have electricity. The home has since burned.

Samuel Adams, a Revolutionary War veteran, came to Bowdoin in 1791 and claimed acreage on present day Route 201. A log cabin preceded the present home. A large modern barn was built in 1907, and a gala party, with Gov. Cobb in attendance, marked the occasion. Donald and Frances Adams are the sixth generation of their family to farm this land.

The Michael Feldman home on the Burough Road is of brick and was probably built in 1820 by Martin Hall. Since then the property has been owned by the Curtis, Scrivens, and Beals families.

The Richard Purinton home was built in 1820. Nathaniel Purinton took the clay from his land, kilned the brick and built the Purinton Homestead at West Bowdoin. This home has sheltered five generations of Purintons.

This beautiful home located near the junction of Routes 201 and 125 was over the years the residence of Bowdoin's leading families: the Randalls, Elliots, Eatons, Coombs, and Freemans. A carding mill, muster ground, and a Calvinistic Baptist Church were all a part of the property. The home burned in 1968.

The Bunker Chase Tavern was used as an inn by the Litchfield-Bowdoin Stage line which connected Brunswick and Augusta. The house is located on the Litchfield Road, almost across from the North Cemetery. It is presently the home of Mrs. Harold Small.

This flourishing farm was located at West Bowdoin on the crossroad running between the State Road and Route 125. Early on it was the Cox Homestead and later the property of Deacon Albert Small. This home is no longer standing.

After her husband's death in 1860, Ruth Ridley Bickford came to the family farm on the Lewis Road. Here she raised 11 children, and here she received the news of the death of her eldest son who was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness. Her son Silas took over the farm until it was sold to a man named Strout and shortly thereafter to Wilson Freeman. The Freemans put in a foundation, raised the roof and changed the ell. This is now the home of Harland Hatch.

This Borough Road cape is now the home of James McIver, a Denham descendant. The large farm has been in the Denham family for many generations. Family legend has it that the first family home was a log cabin and that there was another house before this cape was built many years ago.

This picture of Mahala Small Webber, born July 2, 1837 and married in 1862, seems to best represent everybody's Bowdoin grandmother. Her ancestors reached back to the Mayflower, and her descendants still populate the area. The mittens and socks drying over the stove, the spinning wheel, the roller towel and the coffee pot all take some of us back to our own grandmothers' kitchens and give all of us a knowledge of the lifestyle of the average person in the late "1800's."

Capt. David Coombs (1803-1856) came up from Harpswell, and although he owned a Bowdoin farm, he still kept to his seafaring ways, as did many Bowdoin families. He and his wife Sarah had eight children. A daughter, Lovinia, became a Baptist missionary to India. One died as a baby. David and George were both lost at sea off St Thomas, and James was lost in the Irish Sea. A monument in the Woodlawn Cemetery sums up the parents' anguish. "The Ship Mobile and crew were lost, and one of them was James, our son. Lord help us say thy will be done."

The Bowdoin Community Building was built in 1979 by the Bowdoin PTC which was organized November 11, 1953. The building was built to fulfill a community need for a place for public gatherings. It is also used for town meetings and a voting place.