Windham, Maine Windham, Maine Main Street, South Windham c.
Main Street, South Windham c.
Motto: Windham Works for Maine Location in Cumberland County and the state of Maine.
Location in Cumberland County and the state of Maine.
Windham is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States.
It includes the villages of South Windham and North Windham.
It is part of the Portland South Portland Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area.
New Marblehead Plantation was incorporated on June 12, 1762 as Windham, titled for Wymondham in Norfolk, England. Windham Minutemen marched to Portland in response to the Burning of Falmouth on 18 October 1775 and sixteen men were drafted from the town for the Penobscot Expedition.
Thirteen Windham men are reported as being members of the Continental Army with George Washington's American Revolutionary War winter encampment at Valley Forge. Windham's 9-pounder cannon and one swivel gun from the stockade blockhouse were loaned to Portland in 1775.
Each landowner cleared the river floodplain for cropland and had river access for transit to the coast until River Road and Old Gray Road (United States Route 202) were assembled linking connected farm buildings on high ground adjoining to the floodplain.
Windham provided various sites for water power, and as early as 1738 a foundry was erected at Mallison Falls.
The Cumberland and Oxford Canal opened in 1832, carrying goods along the Presumpscot River between Sebago Lake and Portland.
In 1859, when Windham's populace was 2,380, it had 8 sawmills, a corn and flour mill, 2 shingle mills, a fulling mill, 2 carding mills, a woolen textile factory, a barrel factory, a chair stuff factory, the gunpowder factory and 2 tanneries.
Oriental Powder Company became the biggest gunpowder factory in Maine, and remained in operation until 1905 providing modern blasting powder, gunpowder for belligerents in the Crimean War, and 25 percent of the Union gunpowder supply for the American Civil War. A charcoal home, saltpeter refinery, mills, and storehouses were separated along a mile of both banks of the Presumpscot River upstream of Gambo to minimize damage amid infrequent explosions. The canal fell into disuse after the Portland and Ogdensburg Railway was instead of through South Windham and Newhall in 1875. Maine Central Railroad leased the stockyards as their Mountain Division in 1888. Availability of year-round transit encouraged C.A.
Brown and Company to build a large brick wood-paper board factory at South Windham in 1875.
Androscoggin Pulp Company purchased the factory, and the industrialized village of South Windham advanced around the pulp mill. By 1886, the town also produced felt, boots and shoes, carriages, harness, coffins, clothing and wooden ware.
On April 4, 1919, the council passed an act creating the Reformatory for Men at South Windham.
Designation of the transcontinental Roosevelt Trail in 1919 (identified as United States Route 302 since 1935) encouraged increasing numbers of automobile tourists to drive through North Windham. Boody's store was assembled on the north corner of the intersection of the Roosevelt Trail and Maine State Route 115 to sell grain, food, and hardware.
The crossroads village of North Windham has period into the commercial center of town through increasing automobile use by Sebago Lake vacationers and suburban Portland commuters. According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town has a total region of 50.15 square miles (129.89 km2), of which 46.56 square miles (120.59 km2) is territory and 3.59 square miles (9.30 km2) is water. Located beside Sebago Lake, Windham is drained by the Pleasant River and the Presumpscot River.
There are a several roads that connect certain parts of the town, as well as to other towns, such as Pope Road (Connecting North Windham to Windham Center), River Road (main connector connecting North Windham and Westbrook), Windham Center Road (mainly crosses the town in an east-west direction, as well as connecting Windham Center to Gorham), and Falmouth Road (connects North Windham to Falmouth).
Windham is home to a several parks and recreation facilities including the town hall, Manchester Primary school, Windham Middle and High schools, as well as a several parks.
See also: North Windham, Maine William Diamond, Secretary of State of Maine and state legislator Jeff Donnell, actress (The Iron Maiden, The Amazing Spider-Man, and General Hospital); born in South Windham Windham and neighboring Raymond are part of a merged school precinct called RSU 14.
Windham based schools in the RSU include Windham Primary School (K-3), Manchester School (4-5), Windham Middle School (6-8), and Windham High School (9-12).
Windham Historical Society The Windham Land Trust a b Goold, Nathan Windham, Maine in the War of the Revolution 1775-1783 (1900) H.W.
Dole, Samuel Thomas Windham in the Past (1916) Heald, A History of the Boston & Maine Railroad: Exploring New Hampshire's Rugged Heart by Rail; The History Press; Charleston, South Carlolina 2007 "Windham Parks and Recreation: Facility Details".
"Windham Parks and Recreation: Facility Details".
Town of Windham official website Maine.gov -- Windham, Maine History of Windham, Maine (1886) Maine Genealogy: Windham, Cumberland County, Maine Windham, Maine in the War of the Revolution, 1775-1783 (1900) Municipalities and communities of Cumberland County, Maine, United States
Categories:
Populated places established in 1735 - Windham, Maine - Portland, Maine urbane region - Towns in Cumberland County, Maine - Towns in Maine - Company suburbs in Maine
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