Brunswick: Naval Air Station Legacy and Bowdoin College
Brunswick is best known for two things: Bowdoin College and the former Naval Air Station Brunswick. Bowdoin, founded in 1794, counts among its alumni Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Franklin Pierce, and Joshua Chamberlain. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote much of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" while living in Brunswick in the early 1850s, when her husband taught at the college. The campus sits at the edge of the town center, and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art holds collections of European and American work.
The naval air station closed in 2011 under the Base Realignment and Closure process. At its peak, the base employed thousands of military and civilian personnel and flew P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft over the Atlantic. The redevelopment of the 3,200-acre site, now called Brunswick Landing, has brought in businesses, a TechPlace incubator, and residential development. The former runways and hangars are being repurposed for aviation, manufacturing, and commercial use.
Downtown Brunswick centers on Maine Street, a wide avenue lined with brick commercial buildings. The town hosts a farmers' market from May through November and sits at the head of Merrymeeting Bay, where six rivers converge before flowing to the sea. The Androscoggin Swinging Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge over the river, connects Brunswick to the town of Topsham. Brunswick's population is roughly 15,000.
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Brunswick is best known for two things: Bowdoin College and the former Naval Air Station Brunswick. Bowdoin, founded in 1794, counts among its alumni Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Franklin Pierce, and Joshua Chamberlain. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote much of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" while living in Brunswick in the early 1850s, when her husband taught at the college. The campus sits at the edge of the town center, and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art holds collections of European and American work.
The naval air station closed in 2011 under the Base Realignment and Closure process. At its peak, the base employed thousands of military and civilian personnel and flew P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft over the Atlantic. The redevelopment of the 3,200-acre site, now called Brunswick Landing, has brought in businesses, a TechPlace incubator, and residential development. The former runways and hangars are being repurposed for aviation, manufacturing, and commercial use.
Downtown Brunswick centers on Maine Street, a wide avenue lined with brick commercial buildings. The town hosts a farmers' market from May through November and sits at the head of Merrymeeting Bay, where six rivers converge before flowing to the sea. The Androscoggin Swinging Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge over the river, connects Brunswick to the town of Topsham. Brunswick's population is roughly 15,000.
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