Boothbay Harbor History: Railway Village, Lighthouses and Inns

Boothbay Harbor's maritime history in one afternoon

Boothbay Harbor history is maritime history, and you can cover the core of it in an afternoon on foot. Start at the Boothbay Harbor Region Historical Society. It is a small museum, and a good one, with artifacts, photographs and documents that tell the settler story and the fishing story side by side. Give it an hour.

From there, head to the Maine State Aquarium. It leans toward living marine life, but it also covers the history of the local fisheries, and it fills in the working side of the harbor you will have seen from the docks.

Then walk Commercial Street. Restored buildings and historical plaques line the waterfront and the streets behind it, and together they make a self-guided tour that costs nothing. Read the plaques. The town has taken care with them.

• Boothbay Harbor Region Historical Society: artifacts, photos and documents
• Maine State Aquarium: marine life and local fisheries history
• Restored downtown buildings with historical plaques for a self-guided walk

The Boothbay Railway Village Museum

The Boothbay Railway Village Museum has been open for more than sixty seasons, and it is the most complete piece of living history on the peninsula. Vintage trains are the headline. Around them sits a village of exhibits, an antique car collection, a model railroad and a small herd of goats that children remember longer than the trains.

It runs on community support. The museum hosts fundraisers and evening events with live music, local food and performances, and locals turn out for them. If you visit and like it, a donation goes further here than at most places.

The museum is also the site of the Fall Foliage Festival every October, when craft vendors, fall food and live music fill the grounds. Mid-October is the week to see the trains and the color at once. The Village is a short drive from Commercial Street, so plan on the car for this one.

Historic landmarks: the Opera House and Cuckolds Lighthouse

The Boothbay Harbor Opera House is a nineteenth-century building that still earns its keep. Concerts and open mic nights happen inside, and the acoustics are the reason performers like it. Even if nothing is on, walk past it. The architecture is worth the detour.

Cuckolds Lighthouse has stood watch at the harbor since 1892. You see it best from the water, and the lighthouse cruises that leave from the waterfront go right past it while the crew tells its story. The lighthouses along this coast come with the tales you would expect: shipwrecks, daring rescues and a few local legends that have improved with retelling.

The events calendar adds to this through the year. Historical reenactments, festivals and cultural celebrations show up on it, and they are the most enjoyable way to learn the town's story.

A self-guided history walk on Commercial Street

Here is the route we give guests. Start at the Historical Society when it opens. Walk the waterfront, reading the plaques on the restored buildings. Cut up to the Opera House. Then come back down to the docks for a lighthouse cruise in the afternoon, and finish at a waterfront restaurant with the harbor in front of you.

It is a flat, short walk with the boat in the middle, and it works for grandparents and young children alike. If it rains, the Historical Society and the Aquarium carry the day on their own.

Allow a full afternoon if you take the cruise, or a long morning without it. Neither museum is large, and the point is not to rush. Sit on a bench at the waterfront between stops and watch the working boats. That is history too, still going on.

Staying in a historic Boothbay Harbor inn

Boothbay Harbor is known for its historic inns, and the two we run are among them. Antique furnishings and historic details set the tone. A fire in the fireplace, a garden to sit in, a porch or a balcony over the harbor. That is the old part, and we have kept it.

The rest has been renovated properly. Every room has a private bath, independently controlled heating and cooling, Wi-Fi and a smart TV. Greenleaf Inn, at 65 Commercial Street, has ten king rooms with balconies and patios, harbor and ocean views, and a third-floor sky deck. Admiral's Quarters Inn, at 71 Commercial Street, has eight waterfront rooms, several with fireplaces, plus a glass solarium and a harbor lawn with a fire pit.

Our advice: pick the inn by the room you want, not the name. A fireplace and a harbor balcony, Admiral's Quarters. A big king room and the sky deck, Greenleaf. Either way, you are steps from everything in this guide.

Questions we get asked