Brunswick Travel Guide
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Brunswick and Bath are two handsome and historic towns that share a strong commercial past. Many travelers heading up Route 1 usually pass through both towns eager to reach the areas with higher billing on the marquee. That's a shame, for both are well worth the detour to sample two distinctive Maine towns.
Along the Androscoggin River, Brunswick was once home to several mills, which have been converted to offices and the like, but its broad Maine Street still bustles with activity. (Idiosyncratic traffic patterns can lead to traffic snarls in the late afternoon, when local businesses let out.) Brunswick is also home to Bowdoin College, one of the nation's most respected small colleges. Founded in 1794, it has an illustrious roster of prominent alumni, including writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, President Franklin Pierce, and arctic explorer Robert E. Peary. Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain was college president after the war.
Eight miles to the east, Bath is a noted center of shipbuilding, situated on the broad Kennebec River. The first U.S.-built ship was constructed downstream at the Popham Bay colony in the early 17th century; in the years since, shipbuilders have constructed more than 5,000 ships here. Bath shipbuilding reached its heyday in the late 19th century, but the business of shipbuilding continues to this day. Bath Iron Works is one of the nation's preeminent boatyards, constructing and repairing ships for the U.S. Navy. The scaled-down military has left Bath shipbuilders in a somewhat tenuous state, but it's still common to see the steely gray ships in the dry dock (the best view is from the bridge over the Kennebec), and the towering red-and-white crane moving supplies and parts around the yard.
Bath is gaining attention from young professional émigrés attracted by its fine old housing, but it's still at heart a blue-collar town, with massive traffic tie-ups weekdays at 3pm when the shipyard changes shifts. Architecture buffs will find a detour here worthwhile. (Look for the free brochure Architectural Tours: Walking and Driving in the Bath Area, available at information centers listed below.) The Victorian era in particular is well represented. Washington Street, lined with maples and impressive homes, is one of the best-preserved displays in New England of late-19th-century homes. The compact downtown, on a rise overlooking the river, is also home to notable Victorian commercial architecture.
