27 Aug 2023
If you've passed by Bath on US Rt 1 you have a choice of things to focus on, the shipyard of Bath Iron Works to the south, with the large naval vessels under construction, or the downtown of brick buildings and the stately former courthouse to the north. I wanted to learn more about the downtown, and this tour was perfect.
Meg starts her tour with a history of Bath and the Kennebec river area, to ground the story. Then she took us around the downtown, helping us see and understand its history as we visited landmarks, the thriving shop buildings, learning how the buildings and their uses had changed over time.
It's not a canned speech. We got to ask questions, raise topics, and Meg took advantage of events to embellish the tour. For example, as we were standing in front of the town offices, the Davenport memorial, a staff member came out with a box of property-tax related letters to put into the mailbox and we got off on a discussion of city government and relative tax rates. Among the group were a couple who were interested in moving to Maine, so a very useful conversation for them.
The tour met my interests perfectly.