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1930 Bridge

The area in Hallowell known as "Vaughan Woods" owes its existence to the Vaughan family. Benjamin Vaughan, a wealthy merchant from London, arrived in America in the late 1700's and built his homestead along the banks of the Kennebec. Vaughan, a curious man, used the land for growing his own varieties of apples and experimented with different types of livestock to see which might be best adapted to the new climate. He was also known to have a library of over 10,000 volumes, and corresponded with the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. His descendants have lived and worked in the area for over seven generations. "In the 1830’s Benjamin’s daughter Sarah was forced to sell part of the Woods. The banks of the Vaughan Brook were developed into an industrial park, of sorts, and a number of mills were constructed, including a wire mill and a sandpaper mill. In the early 1900's, William Warren Vaughan, Sarah's great-nephew, spent considerable time and resources buying back the lands that Sarah and other family members had sold." - from the Vaughan Woods homestead website. The large stone arched bridge in this photo has a block with the date 1930, so it must have been as a result of Williams actions that this bridge was built, close to the site of the afformentioned mills. It must have been quite an undertaking, completing this bridge just as the world entered the Great Depression.

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1930 Bridge.jpg
Copyright
Benjamin M. Williamson
Image Size
5184x3456 / 15.9MB
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The area in Hallowell known as "Vaughan Woods" owes its existence to the Vaughan family. Benjamin Vaughan, a wealthy merchant from London, arrived in America in the late 1700's and built his homestead along the banks of the Kennebec. Vaughan, a curious man, used the land for growing his own varieties of apples and experimented with different types of livestock to see which might be best adapted to the new climate. He was also known to have a library of over 10,000 volumes, and corresponded with the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. His descendants have lived and worked in the area for over seven generations. "In the 1830’s Benjamin’s daughter Sarah was forced to sell part of the Woods. The banks of the Vaughan Brook were developed into an industrial park, of sorts, and a number of mills were constructed, including a wire mill and a sandpaper mill. In the early 1900's, William Warren Vaughan, Sarah's great-nephew, spent considerable time and resources buying back the lands that Sarah and other family members had sold." - from the Vaughan Woods homestead website. The large stone arched bridge in this photo has a block with the date 1930, so it must have been as a result of Williams actions that this bridge was built, close to the site of the afformentioned mills. It must have been quite an undertaking, completing this bridge just as the world entered the Great Depression.
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