History of Belfast

     Belfast was originally known as the Settlement of Passagasswakeg, but renamed in 1770 by Scotch-Irish settlers. The settlement was mostly abandoned during the American Revolution while the British army occupied Bagaduce.  Belfast was for the first hundred years of its organized history a ship building center, sending hundreds of three, four, and five masted schooners into the world and making the fortune of many New England shipping and whaling families. Its location on the western shore of idyllic Penobscot Bay is far enough from the open ocean to be sheltered but close enough to make for an ideal shipbuilding location. Bangor, Maine, the North American lumber capital for most of the later 1800s, was less than a day's run up the Penobscot River, and Boston, Massachusetts was a little over a day's run south. The death of wooden cargo sailing vessels around the turn of the 20th century coincided with the advent of modern refrigeration, allowing the plentiful local seafood (mainly lobsters) to take the place of schooners and lumber as the region's primary export. Lobsters, scallops, sardines, herring, and mackerel made their way to the markets in Boston, New York City, and farther afield. Along the way, Belfast and the surrounding communities became a favored summer destination in Maine's mid-coast region.

MEC "Belfast Branch" Station (B&MLRR) at Belfast, Maine, c1900.Belfast (and its busy seaport) got an important boost to its economy in 1871 with the establishment -- after almost 35 years of trying -- of a county-wide direct link to the nation's vast and growing railroad network with the completion of its 33+ mile shortline, the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad. From its main yard located on the Belfast waterfront, the mostly (about 80%) city owned B&ML's grade ran the entire length of Waldo County to Burnham Junction where it joined the tracks of the Maine Central Railroad's Portland to Bangor mainline.

Under a 50-year lease, the MEC built nine station and freight houses in towns along the route and operated their trains over the B&ML's track as its Belfast Branch from its official opening on December 23, 1870 until 1925 when -- to the surprise and dismay of the city fathers -- on June 30th, the company unexpectedly gave the B&ML the required six months notice that it would cancel its by then year-to-year lease for the line effective December 31. Thus on January 1, 1926 -- some 55 years after the first passengers traveled over its rails -- the B&ML ran a train over the line under its own name for the first time ever.

Winter view down Main St. from Church St. (Original digital image by B.C. Cooper) The B&ML continued to provide regular passenger and RPO (Railway Post Office) service until early 1960 after which it became strictly a freight railroad. With the closing of Belfast's last major chicken house in 1989, however, the B&ML lost its last major freight customer. Two years later the city sold the 5,004 shares (out of roughly 6,000 outstanding) it had owned for 123 years to private interests after which the B&ML was operated mostly as a summer excursion railroad running trains out of Belfast and Unity until 2004 when its then owners defaulted on its lease of the waterfront yard which the city still owned. In July, 2005, the yard's man powered "Armstrong" turntable and few remaining tracks were removed thus marking the official end of Belfast as a railroad town.

Old Post Office & Custom House in c. 1910After World War II, Belfast's economy was driven by its poultry industry. The annual summer Broiler Festival became a popular celebration of the summer season for locals and summer people alike. The collapse of the broiler industry in the mid-1970s during a national economic downturn was devastating to Belfast and the surrounding communities. Even today, the long narrow concrete footprints of decades-gone chicken houses can be found in overgrown fields throughout the county. The demolition in the early 1980s of the defunct chicken-feed silos at the foot of Main Street that had once fed millions of chickens marked a turning point for the community as the old order faded away. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, there was a sizeable migration out of Belfast in search of better employment opportunities, which led to a depressed real estate market. This favorable buying market attracted an influx of young artists and college grads from all over the country. In 1977, a few years before the demise of the broiler chicken industry, the Belfast Co-op was formed and still thrives to this day. It quickly became a meeting place for the community where ideas could be exchanged and refined, creating the basis for the community that exists and thrives to this day. The Co-op was a haven for the new influx of young college grads, artists and idealists that flocked to Belfast, and came to call it home.

Unitarian Church in 1909In the early 1990s, credit card giant MBNA established a large facility in Belfast. MBNA was instrumental in establishing the Hutchinson Center of the University of Maine, an outpost of the University of Maine System, less than a mile from the main MBNA campus. The explosion of jobs provided by MBNA has increased Belfast's population significantly. (MBNA was recently acquired by Bank of America.)

The former Stinson plant has become the site of a major waterfront development with condo, retail shops and marina slated to begin construction in late 2005. Belfast is once again beginning the redefining process.