Nestled along the southern shore of Moosehead Lake, Greenville, nearly since its founding, has been the gateway to the North Country. Originally settled in the 1820’s by a handful of hardy settlers, Greenville grew slowly against the backdrop of the fading Appalachian Mountain range and the expanse of Moosehead Lake. The lake, Maine’s largest by far, covers about 4,400 square miles of Maine’s rugged north. Another well known feature in the area is Mount Kineo, a prominent outcropping along the lake with a dramatically plunging cliff face. Farming and lumbering were the first attractions for the few settlers there initially. Greenville, even today, is considered off the beaten path but in the early 19th century, the journey was long, dirty and rough. You either rode your horse, caught the occasional wagon or hiked to the settlement.

By 1836, Greenville had been incorporated. The first hotel was built during this time, the Seboomook House, and the first store as well. By 1846, Greenville boasted a store, a hotel, two houses, two blacksmiths and a schoolhouse. It was also about this time that steam made its first appearance in Greenville. Steam boats began to be used to tow logs down the lake to the other mills beginning to pop up in the area. To this day, the Katahdin still streams across Moosehead carrying tourists rather than towing lumber. By the early 1880’s, the B&A Railroad had finally reached Greenville and was soon joined by a line of the Canadian Pacific. Greenville continued to slowly and quietly prosper and grow in this manner until the beginning of the 20th Century.

As the last century opened, Greenville began to expand at a faster pace. With the advent of trains, the trip to Greenville was not the ordeal it had been previously. As more people discovered the shore side village, new buildings began to spring up to house businesses and families. It was during this period that Greenville began to develop its reputation as a vacation destination. As the industrial revolution continued and the more affluent middle and upper classes outside of Maine sought respite from the urban industrial centers, places like Greenville had a new appeal. It was in this way that the seasonal tourist business took hold in Greenville. The remoteness that had kept the sleepy little village from booming during its earliest years was now a desired commodity.

What follows from that time to the present is a series of prosperous times rolling into lean times and back again. As the face America changed and people were freer to travel in their own cars to destinations not served by trains, Greenville began to lose the upper crust clientele that had summered so regularly before. Some of the grand hotels began to close and the town dwindled back to mainly the farmers, lumber jacks and nature lovers.