Boothbay Harbor is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,027 at the 2020 census. It includes the neighborhoods of Bayville, Mount Pisgah, and Sprucewold, and the villages of Isle of Springs and West Boothbay Harbor. During summer months, the entire Boothbay Harbor region is a popular yachting and tourist destination.
History
The Abenaki people that lived in the region called it Winnegance. The first European presence in the region was an English fishing outpost called Cape Newagen in 1623. A Englishman by the name of Henry Curtis purchased the right to settle Winnegance from the Abenaki Sachem Mowhotiwormet in 1666. However, the English were driven from their settlements by the Abenaki in 1676 during King Philip's War in 1676. The colonists returned after the war ended. In 1689 during King William's War, they were driven out again. Winnegance was abandoned entirely, and remained a desolate waste for 40 years.
In 1730, Colonel David Dunbar, the superintendent and governor of the Territory of Sagadahock, laid out a new town, named Townsend after Viscount Townshend. Despite predations during the French and Indian Wars, and robberies during the Revolutionary War by marauding British sailors, the settlement was successful, not least because of its large, deep and protected harbor. During the Penobscot Expedition, in 1779 Townsend became a rendezvous point for the American naval fleet prior to its disastrous encounter with the British at Castine.
Renamed Boothbay in 1842, the harbor continued to develop as a fishing center. In bad weather, it could hold at a time between 400 and 500 vessels, often Friendship Sloops, seeking shelter. By 1881, it had a fishery and fish oil company, an ice company, two marine railways, a fertilizer manufacturer, and a factory for canning lobsters. On February 16, 1889, the community was set off from Boothbay and incorporated as the town of Boothbay Harbor. Frank L. Sample shipyard at Boothbay Harbor built minesweepers for the United States Navy during World War II and into the 1950s. Some location filming for the 1956 movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, notably the "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" sequence, was done there. Each summer, Boothbay Harbor draws crowds of tourists. Attractions include the state aquarium, art galleries, restaurants, boat tours to coastal islands and whale watching.
Geography
The town is in southern Lincoln County, at the south end of a peninsula in the Gulf of Maine, part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered to the west by the tidal Sheepscot River and to the east by Linekin Bay. The town center sits at the north end of Boothbay Harbor, which joins Linekin Bay to the south, past Spruce Point. Townsend Gut, to the southwest, separates the town of Boothbay Harbor from Southport Island. The town is bordered to the north and east by the town of Boothbay, to the south by the town of Southport, and to the west, across the Sheepscot River, by the towns of Westport and Georgetown. The island community of Isle of Springs is in the western part of the town, and West Boothbay Harbor is in the west-central part of the town. Bayville is next to the eastern border of the town, close to East Boothbay.
The town is crossed by state routes 27 and 96. Route 27 leads south into Southport and north to Wiscasset. Route 96 leads east to the village of East Boothbay and to its end at Ocean Point.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town of Boothbay Harbor has a total area of , of which are land and , or 38.17%, are water.
Climate
Demographics
2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 2,165 people, 1,084 households, and 550 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 2,175 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.1% White, 0.6% African American or Black, 0.3% Native American, 0.8% Asian, 0.1% from other races, and 1.2% from two or more races. Latino of any race were 0.7% of the population.
There were 1,084 households, of which 14.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.9% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 2.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 49.3% were non-families. 41.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 22.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.90 and the average family size was 2.52.