The next settlement at Sagadahoc was about 1660, when land titles were purchased from an Indian sagamore known as Robinhood. Incorporated as part of Georgetown in 1753, Bath was set off and incorporated as a town on February 17, 1781. It was named by the postmaster, Dummer Sewell, after Bath in Somerset, England. In 1844, a portion of the town was set off to create West Bath. On June 14, 1847, Bath was incorporated as a city, and in 1854 designated county seat. Land would be annexed from West Bath in 1855.
Several industries developed in the city, including the manufacture of lumber, iron and brass, with trade in ice and coal. But Bath is renowned for shipbuilding, which began here in 1743 when Jonathan Philbrook and his sons built 2 vessels. Since then, roughly 5,000 vessels have been launched in the area, which at one time had more than 200 shipbuilding firms. Bath became the nation's fifth largest seaport by the mid-1800s, producing clipper ships which sailed to ports around the world. The last commercial enterprise to build wooden ships in the city was the Percy & Small Shipyard, which was acquired for preservation in 1971 by the Maine Maritime Museum. But the most famous shipyard is the Bath Iron Works, founded in 1884 by Thomas W. Hyde. It has built hundreds of wooden and steel vessels, mostly warships for the U.S. Navy. During World War II, Bath Iron Works launched a new ship every 17 days. The shipyard is a major regional employer, and operates today as a division of the General Dynamics Corporation.
The city is noted for fine Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate architecture, including the 1858 Custom House and Post Office designed by Ammi B. Young. Bath is sister city to Shariki (now Tsugaru) in Japan, where the locally-built full rigged ship Cheseborough was wrecked in 1889. Scenes from the movies Message in a Bottle (1999) and The Man Without a Face (1993) were filmed in the city.
This information was posted on Wikipedia, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Maine
For more information about Bath's history, please contact the Bath History Room at www.patten.lib.me.us/history .... the Maine Maritime Museum at www.mainemaritimemuseum.org ..... or Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc at www.sagadahocpreservation.org
You can download an audio walking tour of Bath's historical architecture here: www.cityofbath.com/visiting_pages_694_pub.html
