Belfast, Maine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belfast is a city in Waldo County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,381. It is the county seat of Waldo CountyGR6. Located on Penobscot Bay at the mouth of the Passagassawakeag River, the community is named for Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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[edit] Geography
Belfast is located at (44.425896, -69.011646)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 99.3 km² (38.3 mi²). 88.2 km² (34.0 mi²) of it is land and 11.2 km² (4.3 mi²) of it (11.26%) is water.
[edit] Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 6,381 people, 2,765 households, and 1,692 families residing in the city. The population density was 72.4/km² (187.5/mi²). There were 3,121 housing units at an average density of 35.4/km² (91.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.56% White, 0.28% African American, 0.27% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.27% from other races, and 1.33% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.69% of the population.
There were 2,765 households out of which 25.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.8% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.8% were non-families. 31.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.77.
In the city the population was spread out with 20.9% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 24.2% from 25 to 44, 27.3% from 45 to 64, and 20.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 87.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $32,400, and the median income for a family was $43,253. Males had a median income of $30,514 versus $27,518 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,276. About 10.0% of families and 13.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.5% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] History
Belfast was originally known as the Settlement of Passagasswakeg, but renamed in 1770 by Scotch-Irish settlers. The settlement was mostly abandoned during the American Revolution while the British army occupied Bagaduce. <ref name="MAGDE">Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums (1970). Doris A. Isaacson: Maine: A Guide 'Down East'. Rockland, Me: Courier-Gazette, Inc., 266-269.</ref> Belfast was for the first hundred years of its organized history a ship building center, sending hundreds of three, four, and five masted schooners into the world and making the fortune of many New England shipping and whaling families. Its location on the western shore of idyllic Penobscot Bay is far enough from the open ocean to be sheltered but close enough to make for an ideal shipbuilding location. Bangor, Maine, the North American lumber capital for most of the later 1800s, was less than a day's run up the Penobscot River, and Boston, Massachusetts was a little over a day's run south. The death of wooden cargo sailing vessels around the turn of the 20th century coincided with the advent of modern refrigeration, allowing the plentiful local seafood (mainly lobsters) to take the place of schooners and lumber as the region's primary export. Lobsters, scallops, sardines, herring, and mackerel made their way to the markets in Boston, New York City, and farther afield. Along the way, Belfast and the surrounding communities became a favored summer destination in Maine's mid-coast region.
Belfast (and its busy seaport) got an important boost to its economy in 1871 with the establishment -- after almost 35 years of trying -- of a county-wide direct link to the nation's vast and growing railroad network with the completion of its 33+ mile shortline, the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad. From its main yard located on the Belfast waterfront, the mostly (about 80%) city owned B&ML's grade ran the entire length of Waldo County to Burnham Junction where it joined the tracks of the Maine Central Railroad's Portland to Bangor mainline.
Under a 50-year lease, the MEC built nine station and freight houses in towns along the route and operated their trains over the B&ML's track as its Belfast Branch from its official opening on December 23, 1870 until 1925 when -- to the surprise and dismay of the city fathers -- on June 30th, the company unexpectedly gave the B&ML the required six months notice that it would cancel its by then year-to-year lease for the line effective December 31. Thus on January 1, 1926 -- some 55 years after the first passengers traveled over its rails -- the B&ML ran a train over the line under its own name for the first time ever.
The B&ML continued to provide regular passenger and RPO (Railway Post Office) service until early 1960 after which it became strictly a freight railroad. With the closing of Belfast's last major chicken house in 1989, however, the B&ML lost its last major freight customer. Two years later the city sold the 5,004 shares (out of roughly 6,000 outstanding) it had owned for 123 years to private interests after which the B&ML was operated mostly as a summer excursion railroad running trains out of Belfast and Unity until 2004 when its then owners defaulted on its lease of the waterfront yard which the city still owned. In July, 2005, the yard's man powered "Armstrong" turntable and few remaining tracks were removed thus marking the official end of Belfast as a railroad town.
After World War II, Belfast's economy was driven by its poultry industry. The annual summer Broiler Festival became a popular celebration of the summer season for locals and summer people alike. The collapse of the broiler industry in the mid-1970s during a national economic downturn was devastating to Belfast and the surrounding communities. Even today, the long narrow concrete footprints of decades-gone chicken houses can be found in overgrown fields throughout the county. The demolition in the early 1980s of the defunct chicken-feed silos at the foot of Main Street that had once fed millions of chickens marked a turning point for the community as the old order faded away. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, there was a sizeable migration out of Belfast in search of better employment opportunities, which led to a depressed real estate market. This favorable buying market attracted an influx of young artists and college grads from all over the country. In 1977, a few years before the demise of the broiler chicken industry, the Belfast Co-op was formed and still thrives to this day. It quickly became a meeting place for the community where ideas could be exchanged and refined, creating the basis for the community that exists and thrives to this day. The Co-op was a haven for the new influx of young college grads, artists and idealists that flocked to Belfast, and came to call it home.
In the early 1990s, credit card giant MBNA established a large facility in Belfast. MBNA was instrumental in establishing the Hutchinson Center of the University of Maine, an outpost of the University of Maine System, less than a mile from the main MBNA campus. The explosion of jobs provided by MBNA has increased Belfast's population significantly. (MBNA was recently acquired by Bank of America.)
The former Stinson plant has become the site of a major waterfront development with condo, retail shops and marina slated to begin construction in late 2005. Belfast is once again beginning the redefining process.
[edit] Notable Residents
- Hugh J. Anderson, 20th Governor of Maine from 1844 to 1847, United States Representative for Maine from 1837 to 1841<ref | name="MAGDE" />
- William Veazie Pratt, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations from 1930 to 1933<ref | name="MAGDE" />
[edit] External links
- City of Belfast, Maine Official Website
- Belfast Free Library
- Belfast Historical Society & Museum
- BMLRR.com (An illustrated online history of the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad, chartered in 1867.)
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
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[edit] References
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