The city is named for Benjamin Hallowell, a Boston merchant and one of the Kennebec Proprietors, holders of land originally granted to the Plymouth Company by the British monarchy in the 1620s.

[3] The first settler of European descent was Deacon Pease Clark, who emigrated with his wife and son Peter from Attleborough, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1762.

Legend has it that after disembarking on the west side of the Kennebec, near present-day Water Street, the Clarks took shelter in their overturned cart.

On a riverfront lot measuring 50 rods (275 yards, about 250 meters), the Clark family raised corn, rye and other crops.

[6] Today, the city's population (2,467) is only slightly smaller than it was in 1820, the year Maine was separated from Massachusetts and became a state.

Around 1830, Hallowell's inhabitants enjoyed the services of 71 stores along Water Street (a greater number than Augusta, which had a population of 1,000 and just 20 merchants).

Location on the navigable Kennebec River estuary allowed 50 ships launched from Hallowell's wharves to reach the Atlantic Ocean between 1783 and 1901.

[8] In 1815, the first granite quarried near the Manchester town line signaled the birth of an industry that would support Hallowell until 1908, when cement displaced stone as the construction material of choice.

Other local products exported via the Kennebec (and, after 1857, by train) from Hallowell included sandpaper, textiles from cotton from the Deep South, rope, linseed oil, oilcloth, wire, books and shoes.

Worse still, citizens eager to cross the river in winter and unwary children skating and playing too far from the riverbank lost their lives when ice turned out to be thinner than it looked.

Farmers were often forced to slaughter some of their livestock for food and, later, to sell remaining crops at nearly double normal prices.

It borders the towns of Farmingdale to the south, Manchester to the west, Augusta to the north, and Chelsea across the Kennebec River to the east.

[21] Hallowell is also home to renowned bars, taverns and restaurants, with the downtown area having a high concentration of eating and drinking establishments.

Hallowell is a well known left-leaning city[25] and has the seventh highest percent of Democratic voters of all municipalities in Maine with a population over 1,000.

Hallowell and Farmingdale operate three schools: The former Emporium, at today's 154 Water Street, was built in the early 19th century.

Its significance of having a cast-iron facade installed circa 1870, modifying it to its present Victorian appearance, is demonstrated by its listing in the Historic American Buildings Survey.