It was first settled by Scots-Irish settlers from Londonderry in 1736 under the auspices of Brigadier-General Samuel Waldo, its proprietor.

In 1753, a blockhouse was built and placed under the command of Captain Thomas Kilpatrick, known by terrified Indians as "Tom-kill-the-devil."

Woolens were manufactured at the Georges River Mills, and snowshoes at the Warren Shoe Factory.

[7] The General Henry Knox Canal system (named after Henry Knox, who purchased the locks in 1794) was initially built by Charles Barrett in 1793 to connect the tidewaters of the St. George River with St. George Lake in Liberty, facilitating the shipment of lumber and lime.

The canal banks and one lock may still be seen in Warren, however, uncovered as part of a river beautification project in 1966.

Since 2002, South Warren is home to the Maine State Prison, a 900-bed maximum security facility formerly located in Thomaston since 1824.

One suggests that Amos Peters, a black Revolutionary War veteran from Plymouth, Massachusetts, was working for General Henry Knox.

When Peters married another slave named Sarah, Knox gave the couple land to settle on in what later became Peterborough.

[10] Following the 1780 Quock Walker court case, Amos and Sarah Peters were freed from slavery.

As space at the estate and servants quarters shrunk, "Knox sent many of the families to live in the settlement started by Amos and Sarah Peters".

[10] Another story suggests that many of the original settlers of the community were so-called "limecoasters", black deckhands who were part of the Lime trade from Thomaston to the Southern US.

[10] The school had both black and white teachers, and attendance averaged between twenty-four and thirty students in a given year.

The decline of the shipbuilding industry in the area, coupled with the fact that black people were excluded from factory work, are theorized as some of the factors behind this reduction.

[11] The area was populated by descendants of the original settlers until 1961, when William, Grace and Woodrow Peters moved from Peterborough to a house along Route 90.

[10] Today the area is made up of newer houses with no residents having roots to the original community.

It borders the towns of Union to the north, Rockport to the northeast, Rockland to the east, Thomaston to the southeast, Cushing to the south, Friendship to the southwest, and Waldoboro to the west.