Berwick, Maine

Gibbens would eventually found a trading post to sell arms and ammunition to fellow white settlers.

[4] The dense forests of Southern Maine provided large pine for shipbuilding, and the first sawmill in English America was built in the area that is now South Berwick on the Great Works Falls.

The first lumber exported from the American colonies was clapboards and barrel staves loaded aboard Pied Cowe at South Berwick in 1634.

[6] Kittery North Parish was later called Unity after the ship that transported Scots prisoners of war from the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 to the colonies.

In 1749, the people of Berwick voted to divide the town into a northern and southern parish, known as Blackberry Hill and Old Fields, respectively.

[9] The introduction of the railroad in the mid 19th-century limited the town's reliance on its rivers as it continued to produce lumber.

Beginning in the 19th century, Berwick had a symbiotic economic relationship with Somersworth, New Hampshire, the mill town to which it is connected by bridge.

[10] Additional industry eventually came to Berwick, such as Nute's Shoe Factory in the late 19th-century[9] and Prime Tanning in the early 20th-century.

[11] Prime Tanning grew to be an international producer of leather products but merged with a Chinese company in 2008 after declaring bankruptcy.

[12] In 2021, the town announced the construction of a new mixed-use development, named The Edge at Berwick, on the former property of Prime Tanning.

The lowest elevation, which is approximately 70 feet (21.3 m) above sea level, is on the Salmon River as it crosses the southernmost town border with South Berwick.

The Town of Berwick was awarded several Brownfield grants in 2015, 2016 and 2017 to help with a downtown revitalization effort.

[19] On October 31, 2019, Great Falls Construction purchased the property[20] and over the years has developed the site into The Edge at Berwick Maine.

York County map