Columbia Falls, Maine 04623      06/04/10

Town History

Early Photo of Columbia Falls, ME

View of the Town, date unknown

Columbia Falls, a few miles up the Pleasant River from Pleasant Bay, was settled about 1780. Several fine old homes remain as testimony to the community's affluent days as a successful shipbuilding and lumbering center. With the passing of that era, the economy shifted to agriculture. The processing of clams and locally grown blueberries sustains the village.

RUGGLES HOUSE, .25 mi. off US 1, was built in 1818 for Judge Thomas Ruggles, a wealthy lumber dealer, merchant, postmaster and militia captain. The two-story Adams-style house is noted for its flying staircase that rises without lateral support from the entrance hall to a landing and then turns back into two half-flights, and for its delicate interior and exterior woodcarvings. Created by a craftsman using only a penknife, the carvings so impressed villagers that they believed the carver's knife had been guided by the hand of an angel. Many of the period furnishings are original.

On March 28, 1868, the Town voted to build a poor house and raised $500 for this project.
Wages that year were set at .20 per hour per man and .15 per hour per oxen & horse!
The Town, in its early years, took names of persons who were willing to serve on jury.
One name was drawn in the fall of each year.
One March 20, 1883, the Town voted to tax dogs.

In 1889 the Young Ladies Industrial Society purchased the Town clock as a gift to the Town. At that time the building was known as Union Church and remained known as that until 1902 when the Church gave the building to the Town with the agreement it would be changed into a hall for various functions. It was then to be known as UNION HALL. Through the years The Town Hall was deemed an appropriate name because of its purpose and use designated by the community residents. It now is the home of our library and historic archives.

These are just a few memorable dates of events discovered by Eleanor Galen.
Columbia Falls was incorporated on March 25, 1863.
The first Town Meeting was held April 6, 1863, at 10am at the Hamilin Hall
An important vote that day raised the following funds:
$300 for support of the schools; $1400 for town debts; $200 for town poor; $50 for bridges and $150 miscellaneous.

Columbia Falls, Maine
Historic Photos