Phippsburg, Maine

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"Phippsburg" redirects here. For the small town in Colorado, see Phippsburg, Colorado.

Coordinates: 43°47′35″N 69°49′4″W / 43.79306, -69.81778
Phippsburg, Maine
Phippsburg, Maine Location within the state of Maine
Country	United States
State	Maine
County	Sagadahoc
Incoporated	1814
Area
- Total	43.9 sq mi (113.7 km²)
- Land	28.9 sq mi (74.8 km²)
- Water	15.1 sq mi (39.0 km²)
Elevation	128 ft (39 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	2,106
- Density	73.0/sq mi (28.2/km²)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP codes	04562, 04567
Area code(s)	207
FIPS code	23-58515
GNIS feature ID	0582675

Phippsburg is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, on the west side of the mouth of the Kennebec River. The population was 2,106 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. A popular tourist area, Phippsburg is home to Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, Fort Popham State Historic Site and Popham Beach State Park.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 Sites of interest
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

As site of the Popham Colony, Phippsburg was between 1607-1608 one of the first sections of Maine where English settlement was attempted. During its brief existence, the colony's settlers built Virginia of Sagadahoc, the first ship in Maine's long history of shipbuilding. The next British settlement of the area around the mouth of the Kennebec river began in 1653. The population gradually increased until King Philip's War, when Native Americans in August of 1676 attacked the eastern side of the Kennebec River, massacring settlers or carrying them into captivity, and burning dwellings and killing cattle. The entire area was abandoned.

Resettlement began in 1679 at New Town, located toward the southern end of Arrowsic Island, but in 1689 the area was deserted again during King William's War. With the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1713, peace was established between the Eastern (Abenaki) Indians and English settlements. In 1714, New Town was reestablished. The town would be incorporated as Georgetown-on-Arrowsic by the Massachusetts General Court in 1716, the same year the Pejepscot Proprietors established a little fishing village called Augusta in the Small Point Harbor area of Phippsburg. One of the proprietors, Dr. Oliver Noyes, in 1716 erected a stone fort 100 feet (30.48 meters) square to protect the settlers, who were now coming in fast. On April 23, 1718, Dr. Noyes' fellow proprietors granted him 300 acres.

But in September of 1723 during Dummer's War, 500 Norridgewocks and their Indian allies from Canada, incited by the French missionary Sebastien Rale, attacked the area. It was briefly deserted and the stone fort destroyed. Governor William Dummer's Treaty of 1725 brought peace, and in 1737 an attempt at resettlement was made. In 1738, the boundaries of Georgetown-on-Arrowsic were enlarged to include most of present-day Phippsburg, Bath (which then included West Bath), Woolwich and Georgetown. Slow resettlement of the Phippsburg peninsula found ten farms along the Kennebec River by 1751, with five more on the Casco Bay side. The districts recently gathered into Georgetown-on-Arrowsic began splitting away in 1759 when Woolwich withdrew, followed in 1781 by Bath. Phippsburg was set off and incorporated in 1814. The original petition had requested that the town be named Dromore after one of its oldest sections, but the Province of Massachusetts Bay chose to honor its first royal governor, Sir William Phips -- actually a native of Woolwich. Today, the town's principal industries are fishing and tourism.

[edit] Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 43.9 square miles (113.8 km²), of which, 28.9 square miles (74.7 km²) of it is land and 15.1 square miles (39.0 km²) of it (34.29%) is water. Connected to the mainland by a bridge, Phippsburg is an island dividing Casco Bay from Sheepscot Bay in the Gulf of Maine, part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Phippsburg is crossed by state routes 209, 216 and 217. Separated by water, the island is near the towns of Harpswell to the west, West Bath to the northwest, Bath to the north, Arrowsic to the northeast, and Georgetown to the east.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 2,106 people, 859 households, and 622 families residing in the town. The population density was 73.0 people per square mile (28.2/km²). There were 1,554 housing units at an average density of 53.8/sq mi (20.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.53% White, 0.28% African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.24% Asian, and 0.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.57% of the population.

There were 859 households out of which 28.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.5% were married couples living together, 5.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.5% were non-families. 21.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.82.

In the town the population was spread out with 22.4% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 26.5% from 25 to 44, 30.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 105.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $46,739, and the median income for a family was $53,631. Males had a median income of $33,214 versus $26,250 for females. The per capita income for the town was $22,205. About 5.8% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.8% of those under age 18 and 14.4% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Sites of interest

[edit] References

Brief Description and History of Phippsburg, Maine
A. J. Coolidge & J. B. Mansfield, A History and Description of New England, 1859; H. O. Houghton & Company, printers; Cambridge, Massachusetts
Phippsburg-Fair To The Wind, Compiled by the Phippsburg Historical Society, 1964