NEWPORT

A short history of Newport

The town was settled c. 1808 as East Pond Plantation, then incorporated on June 14, 1814, as Newport. Agriculture was a principal early occupation, and industries included several sawmills, a gristmill, a foundry, cabinet shop, and a number of harness and blacksmith shops. By 1859, when the population was 1,120, Newport was an important producer of carriages "...which, for durability and finish, [were] not excelled by any in the state." The Maine Central Railroad connected to Newport and made it the terminus for its Dexter & Newport Railway, which opened in 1868. By 1880, the population reached 1,451, and industries included a marble, granite and slate works, and a maker of boots and shoes. In 1891, the woolen mill was built, and the Aroostook Condensed Milk Company founded. The latter became the Maine Condensed Milk Company in 1894, then Borden's Condensed Milk Company in 1902.

In 1936, Newport, Maine, became one of the towns to have a Movie Queen filmed in it. The Movie Queen was a half an hour silent video filmed in black and white on 16 mm film. These movies were to display all of the shops and the economy of the town. This film now lives in the Northeast Historic Film repository and is owned by the Newport Historical Committee.

In 1901, a large fire destroyed the Maine Central Railroad freight depot and two mills, and damaged 20 houses. In 1990, two boys, aged eight and nine, started a fire which burned half of Newport's historic downtown. The fire was started in the then vacant Yankee Café. The fire burned a pizzeria, auto parts store, a beauty parlor, and a baseball card shop (three buildings which were more than a century old).

In the 21st century, through the year 2020, the Vic Firth Company, subsidiary of Avedis Zildjian Company, continues to manufacture its percussion sticks and mallets in Newport.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Newport, Maine, revision 1374772841 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.