Editing Gardiner, Maine (section)

==History==

Located at the [[head of navigation]] on the [[Kennebec River]], Gardiner was founded as Gardinerstown Plantation in 1754 by [[Silvester Gardiner|Dr. Silvester Gardiner]], a prominent [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] [[physician]]. Dr. Gardiner had made a fortune as a drug merchant, with one [[apothecary]] shop in [[Massachusetts]] and two in [[Connecticut]], and became a principal proprietor of the Kennebec Purchase within the old [[Plymouth Council for New England|Plymouth Patent]]. He proved a tireless promoter for his development, which once comprised over {{convert|100,000|acre|km2}}.<ref name="The Gardiner Story 1949">{{Cite web |url=http://www.rootsweb.com/~megardin/early.html |title=The Gardiner Story (1949) |access-date=January 12, 2008 |archive-date=March 26, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070326102230/http://www.rootsweb.com/~megardin/early.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Dr. Gardiner induced a [[gristmill]] builder, [[sawmill|saw millwright]], house [[carpenter]] and [[wheelwright]] to settle here,<ref name="The Gardiner Story 1949"/> as well as a man he [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved]] named Isaac "Hazard" Stockbridge.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stakeman |first=Randolph |date=October 1, 1987 |title=Slavery in Colonial Maine |url=https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal/vol27/iss2/2 |journal=Maine History |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=73–74 |access-date=November 30, 2021}}</ref> Houses, mills, a church and a [[blockhouse]] were built. Situated at the [[confluence]] of the [[Kennebec River]] and Cobbosseecontee Stream, which has [[water fall|falls]] that drop 130 feet, the location was recognized by him as ideal for [[water power|water-powered]] [[Watermill|mills]]. Gardinerstown, set off from [[Pittston, Maine|Pittston]] in 1760, became center of the regional economy.<ref name="The Gardiner Story 1949"/>

The [[wilderness]] toils of Dr. Gardiner would end, however, with the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolution]]. Loyal to the [[The Crown|Crown]], he fled Boston in 1776 when the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] army evacuated. But his settlement lived on without him, and in 1803 was incorporated as the town of Gardiner. From the early 19th century until the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], [[shipbuilding]] and [[trade]] were primary industries. It would become a city in 1849, at which time ten large riverfront [[wharf|wharves]] served [[shipping]]. [[Lumber]], in vast quantities, passed 
through Gardiner. [[Tanning (leather)|Tanneries]] and [[shoemaking|shoe factories]] prospered.<ref name=Coolidge>{{Cite book  | last = Coolidge  | first = Austin J.|author2=John B. Mansfield  | title = A History and Description of New England| publisher = A.J. Coolidge  | year = 1859| location = Boston, Massachusetts| pages = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ/page/n171 137]–138| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ| quote = coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859.  }}</ref>

The city became known for exporting [[ice]]. Each winter men cut large blocks from the Kennebec River, then covered the ice with [[sawdust]] in [[warehouses]] to keep it frozen into summer. It was loaded year-round on large vessels for shipment throughout the United States and world. Gardiner was noted for its pristine Kennebec ice, harvested at the furthest point upriver that deep-draft vessels could reach.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Varney
  | first = George J.
  | title = Gazetteer of the state of Maine. Gardiner
  | place = Boston
  | publisher = Russell
  | year = 1886
  | url = http://history.rays-place.com/me/gardiner-me.htm
  | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130201114742/http://history.rays-place.com/me/gardiner-me.htm
  | url-status = dead
  | archive-date = February 1, 2013
  }}</ref>

In 1851, the city was connected by [[railroad]]. One of the first workable steam automobiles in [[United States|America]] was built in Gardiner in 1858. Beginning in the 1860s, [[paper mill]]s flourished, as did the commercial ice industry between the 1880s and 1920s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://history.rays-place.com/me/gardiner.htm |title=Historical Sketch of Gardiner, Maine (1889) |access-date=September 24, 2007 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303204439/http://history.rays-place.com/me/gardiner.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> By the 1960s, however, many mills declined and closed, sending Gardiner's economy plummeting. The former [[mill town]] is now largely a [[bedroom community]] for people who work in [[Augusta, Maine|Augusta]], the state's capital, as well as [[Bath Iron Works]] in [[Bath, Maine|Bath]]. Some residents commute as far as the [[Portland, Maine|Portland]] area. The city is endowed with a great deal of antique [[architecture]], much of it beautifully restored. In 1980, the entire downtown [[historic district]] became one of the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Kennebec County, Maine]].

<gallery>
File:Main Street, Gardiner, ME.jpg|Downtown {{circa|1905}}
File:Water Street, Looking West, Gardiner, ME.jpg|Water Street in 1914
File:The Paper Mills, Gardiner, ME.jpg|Paper mills in 1909
</gallery>