Window Cleaning & Exterior Services in Castine, Maine

History of Castine, Maine

Castine is one of the most historically contested places in all of North America, having changed hands at least nine times among the French, Dutch, English, and Americans. The Penobscot people inhabited the area for thousands of years before European contact. French explorer Samuel de Champlain visited the peninsula in 1604, and the French established a trading post there in the early 1600s. The settlement was named after Baron de Saint-Castin, a French nobleman who married a Penobscot woman and became a powerful fur trader in the region during the late 1600s.

During the American Revolution, Castine was the site of the disastrous Penobscot Expedition of 1779, one of the worst naval defeats in American history until Pearl Harbor. A large American fleet attempted to dislodge the British from Fort George, but poor leadership and indecision led to the destruction of the entire American flotilla. Paul Revere served as a lieutenant colonel of artillery during the failed expedition and faced a court-martial afterward, though he was eventually cleared of wrongdoing.

In the years following the Civil War, Castine transformed from a maritime trading center into a quiet but distinguished village. The Maine State Normal School was established there in 1867, eventually evolving into the Maine Maritime Academy, which was founded in 1941. Today the town remains a picturesque coastal community where cadets train aboard the training vessel State of Maine, and historic buildings from the Federal and Georgian eras line the elm-shaded streets.