Waterford

Andrea Burns understands that her beautiful little town is also fragile. It's been unspoiled and sparsely developed, which attracts lots of vacationers, summer residents, and people from bigger places who long for a quieter life. It's only 45 miles from Portland and a short drive from commercial centers like Bridgton and Norway, which adds to its attraction.

The town is a nice compromise between a place that's lovely and rural, and a place that's easy to get to.

"People move here because they fall in love with it, but they bulldoze ahead with changes to make the place look the way they think it should," said Burns, a retired schoolteacher who moved to town from Massachusetts in the early 1970s. "I know because I'm part of it."

Burns has been active, for instance, in maintaining and restoring the lovely stone and wood Knight Library in the middle of Waterford Flat, a picturesque village center near Keoka Lake. When she was part of the effort to paint it gray instead of white - which virtually every other building in Waterford Flat is painted - some people complained. They wanted no changes, no matter how slight.

VACATIONER'S PARADISE

To outsiders, the different sides of Waterford can be seen if one looks carefully when driving through town. There are children's summer camps, vacation houses along Bear Pond and Keoka Lake, and several inns and guest houses, such as the Greek Revival-style Lake House in the center of Waterford Flat. In summer, the population of 1,455 is said to triple.

But in the separate and distinct village of South Waterford, more modest old homes and buildings mark what was once a center of sawmills and lumber operations. The quiet little area was once known as "The City" because of its seven mill sites.

Many natives still work the dense woodlands of the town for a living, such as Bill Haynes, a former newspaper reporter who now runs Mutiny Brook Lumber, a small sawmill operation. Haynes' family has been in Waterford since around 1870.

Besides working his sawmill, Haynes is a member of the fire department, cemetery superintendent, and writer and publisher of a small town newspaper, "Mutiny Brook Times."

"I guess I feel my ancestors calling me to be involved," said Haynes, 55.

SEVERAL VILLAGES IN ONE

Waterford, in the eyes of natives, is several distinct villages. Waterford Flat is the pretty village green area on Keoka Lake that most people drive through on Route 35. South Waterford was home to sawmills, East Waterford has summer camps, and North Waterford was a self-sufficient little village with stores and churches that is sort of a crossroads on the way to Bethel and the mountains.

Marjorie Kimball came to North Waterford in 1941 as an elementary schoolteacher and ended up meeting and marrying her husband, Hervey. The couple raised nine children in an old farmhouse near the Albany town line. She continued to teach school. Her husband farmed the land.

One of the biggest changes in town over the past 60 years, Kimball says, is "more woods." Local landowners have been restoring and maintaing woodlands over the years, so the town looks more densely wooded than ever, and more densely wooded than many neighboring towns.

Kimball, now 84, still lives in the same house, though her husband has passed away and her children all live elsewhere.

"Dad always told 'em, if you want make any money, get out of Maine," said Kimball.

'THE WORLD'S FAIR'

Kimball has been and is active in village affairs, working to help maintain and restore the North Waterford Congregational Church. She also been involved with the historical association and the fair association. North Waterford calls its fair "The World's Fair" with only a slight hint of humor.

"The fair is very important part of our town," said Kimball, of the fairly shabby collection of fair buildings on a hill just out of sight of the village center. "Not just the fair itself, but we use (the fairgrounds) for weddings, and dances on Saturday nights."

Like Haynes, many natives find a way to stay in the rural town and make a living. One is Davis Kimball, 64, a fifth-generation Waterford resident and a relation, by marriage, to Marjorie Kimball. Kimballs were among the earliest settlers, and the name can be seen on mailboxes around town as well as on the hardware store and a local greenhouse business.

Davis Kimball's grandfather was a butcher who would cut meat for local families. Though there were many farms in town in the 1800s, many were rundown and even abandoned by the early 1900s. Kimball says his father bought up a lot of the farmland cheap, as pastureland.

Kimball's father became a furrier, starting his business with locally trapped furs. Kimball himself began buying up relatively inexpensive timberland in the '60s and '70s, managing it, replanting many acres with trees, and selling to paper mills and other users of wood. Today he owns and manages some 7,000 acres of woodland in Waterford.

Kimball says he's never been tempted to sell all his land, take the money, and move away.

"I just like it here. It's not too fast a pace of life, and I'm used to it," he said.

Originally published Sunday, July 3, 2005
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at rrouthier@pressherald.com

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