Maine towns tops on Net site Rockland, Castine ‘historic’ winners

Tiny Castine and bustling Rockland have a combined 440 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places – one of the reasons a national Web site has ranked them among the top three “most historic” towns in Maine.

Never mind that Rockland is technically a city or that the No. 1 “most historic” town, Kennebunkport, has fewer historic buildings (265) than Castine (270) on the National Register – the people who created the Web site ePodunk have created a quirky ranking system for small historic towns that is designed to provide a guide for people looking for “hidden” vacation sites or those who want to know more about a community or region they are moving to.

Visitors to the site can search up to 28,000 towns throughout the country.

Based in Ithaca, N.Y., ePodunk was begun three years ago to provide obscure information through wireless services like Web cell- phones. The Web site, which was launched in February, is part of that mission. The site doesn’t look at typical variables like the quaintest or glitziest towns or places that were the site of glorious battles. They focus on towns that want to preserve their historic buildings and landmarks.

“I’d like to go along the Mississippi River someday and get the history and facts as I go,” said Laurie Bennett, chief executive officer at ePodunk. “We have the technology to do that now.”

An electronic postcard precedes a description of well-known and not-so-well-known facts about each town. On a Maine postcard, for example, a boy sits on top of a fishing boat as his father scrapes barnacles from it and a black dog watches.

Below the postcard, the name of the town, its population, region, facts, well-known residents and historic sites and museums are listed. And a visitor to the Web site can e-mail the postcard to others.

Visitors to the site can also search for nearby communities, museums and parks or look for claims to fame, literary quotes and festivals in the towns. Information also is given on the county and the state each town is in.

Founders of the privately held company, which sells advertising and database services to other companies for revenue, wanted the Web site to recognize what distinguishes small towns from each other. Bennett said people often think that these small places are disappearing in the Internet age. But ePodunk’s founders also came from small towns, and three of the four are journalists who specialized in research.

“Maine has held on to much of its historic character because it is important to the state,” said Brad Edmondson, content developer at ePodunk.

EPodunk is honoring small historic towns throughout the country for the next two months, and Castine and Rockland ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively in the state.

Castine received 62 points on a scale of 100 on ePodunk’s “historic town” index, with 270 buildings and places listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Rockland received 62 points as well, with 170 buildings and places on the register.

The register is a list of 78,000 buildings, sites, structures, objects and districts. The rankings also considered listings on the National Register of Historic Districts. EPodunk’s rankings were based on an index dependent on various factors, including the number of buildings, sites, structures and objects in any town listed on the registers. The age of a town’s buildings, the number of county projects awarded a federal preservation tax credit and the size of historic districts were also part of the index.

Maine towns also did well against other towns nationally. Towns in 33 counties nationwide scored 64 points or better out of more than 2,500 counties in the nation. Kennebunkport, Maine’s No. 1 historic town, scored 63.

Other top “historic towns” listed for Maine are Camden, Rockport, Blue Hill, Newcastle, Belfast, Winterport, Bayside in Waldo County’s Northport, Cherryfield, Calais, Augusta, Gardiner and China.

Though Bangor and Portland are in areas too large to be considered for ePodunk’s index, Bangor has 200 to 300 places and Portland has at least 1,000 listed on the National Register of Historic Places, said Kirk Mahoney of Maine’s National Register and historic preservation program in Augusta.

Bennett said the company spent a year and a half gathering and typing up the information for the databases and Web site.

Much of the information on the Web site was discovered in books of local histories from the 19th and early 20th centuries. They also obtained information from the U.S. Census, the National Register of Historic Places, the U.S. Geological Survey and local town historians. Other information comes from people who have visited the site and wanted their towns to be included on ePodunk.

The creators want the Web site to have on record all small towns in the United States. “This information is not available anywhere else on the Internet,” Edmondson said. “And we want every place worthy of name – actually any place that shows up on the census – to be on the Web site.”

To view the towns or for information, visit www.epodunk.com.