The Sheepscot Historic District encompasses a historic village in

Alna Alna is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. It is named after the River Alna, which flows through it. The borough consists of the following neighborhoods: * Alnabru * Ellingsrud * Furuset * Haugerud * Hellerud * Lindeberg * Trosterud * Tve ...

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. Located just below the mouth of Dyer Brook where it enters the

Sheepscot River The Sheepscot River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Its lower portion is a complex island estuary with connections to ...

, the includes an area that has seen little alteration in more than 100 years, and includes one of the oldest roadways in the state. The area is archaeologically sensitive for prehistoric and historic settlement sites. The district was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on June 23, 1978.

Description and history

The village of Sheepscot lies astride a narrow point in the upper tidal section of the Sheepscot River, which is the border between the towns of Newcastle and Alna. The main portion of the village consists of a row of closely spaced houses along The King's Highway, one of the Maine's oldest roads, which runs south from the east-west Sheepscot Road on the Newcastle side of the river, just south of the mouth of Dyer Creek. Just south of the junction stands the Sheepscott Community Church, and there are a scattering of residences on the Alna side. The buildings exhibit a range of 19th-century architecture styles, from the Federal, through the Greek Revival, to the Italianate period. The area has a colonial settlement history dating at least to the 1630s, and possibly the 1620s, and was before then the site of Native American activity. The Sheepscot area fell between major land grants, one bounded on the east by the

Kennebec River The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 river within the U.S. state of Maine. It ri ...

, the other on the west by the

Damariscotta River The Damariscotta River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 tidal river in Lincoln County, Maine, that empties into the Atlantic Ocean. ''Damariscotta'' ...

. The first bridge spanning the Sheepscot was built here in 1794, and the present bridge occupies roughly the original footprint of that bridge.

Description and history

See also

References

Further reading