Wiscasset, Maine: A Coastal Town of History and Beauty

"The fickle season allows a traveler to poke about, indoors or out, in an unhurried way. In Wiscasset that means antiques and architecture, farms and food. Visit this justifiably prideful town of 4,000 — it calls itself the “prettiest village in Maine’’ — in springtime and you can acknowledge the past and anticipate the future while missing the congestion of high summer.

Two hundred years ago, one could step from deck to deck of the anchored schooners in this protected deep-water harbor, ice-free in all seasons. Nestled on the shores of the Sheepscot River, Wiscasset was the busiest shipping port east of Boston from the American Revolution until the War of 1812. Today, the village is an architectural treasure. A walk takes you past sea captains’ mansions; 19th-century barns; a sunken garden, now a town park; and the 1824 brick courthouse, still in operation."

Read the rest of the article in "A coastal trove of history, beauty, summer promise", The Boston Globe, April 18, 2010.