Seniors Cool Off In Bath

Bath, historically known as “City of Ships”, more recently has a new tag,  Maine’s “Cool Little City.” Big enough to be a commercial and cultural hub and compact enough to be intimate and walkable, Bath is friendly, and a senior visitor’s paradise.

Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor formed by the Kennebec River estuary. The Abenaki Indians called the area Sagadahoc, meaning “mouth of big river.” Most of Bath, Maine was settled by travelers from Bath, England, thus the name.

Folks come from all over the nation to take in Bath’s historic waterfront downtown shops, boutiques, galleries, cafes and restaurants on pedestrian-friendly Front and Centre Streets. Many senior visitors choose to learn about ship-building history at the Maine Maritime Museum.

Ranked one of the “Ten Best” maritime museums in the world and located on a beautiful 20-acre campus on the banks of the Kennebec River, the museum features its own working shipyard complete with boat-building demonstrations and guided kayak or lighthouse tours. Bath is a World Heritage Site.

History and Architecture Draw Senior Visitors

With a plethora of 19th century architecture, visitors enjoy the many outstanding old buildings. Senior travelers will find a conglomeration of Federal, Greek Revival an Italianate architecture, including the 1858 Custom House and Post Office. The more modern Sagadahoc Bridge is an architectural marvel as well.

Not far away is a famous lighthouse on Seguin Island off the mouth of the Kennebec River. Seguin has the tallest lighthouse in Maine and one of the oldest in the United States. It is a fully functional and one of Maine’s most memorable places. Its Fresnel lens is 12 feet tall and beams out 20 miles.

The Bath of today is down-to-earth, unpretentious and features an eclectic mix of historic houses and buildings bordering the river. Front Street, which parallels the river, was named one of America’s Top 10 Great Streets by the American Planning Association.

The city, 12 miles from the Gulf of Maine, has a shipbuilding heritage that began in 1743 and continues today. In 1841, the 1,133-ton Rappahannock, then the largest vessel in the world, was built by Bath’s Sewall shipyard. By 1857, Bath was the 5th-largest shipbuilding port in the country in registered tonnage.

Senior Visitors Enjoy A “Greatest Main Street” Town

The Chocolate Church Arts Center is midcoast Maine’s regional performing and visual arts center.  Senior travelers will find plenty of choices for places to bed down in Bath including the Benjamin F. Packard House, offering four guest rooms that reflect the life of an 18th-century shipbuilder. The Galen C. Moses House is an 1874 Italianate Victorian and is painted salmon pink.

America has a long listing of “Greatest Main Streets” and Bath fits right in. Explore Front Street, with its brick buildings and an outpost of Reny’s, a small discount department store chain that’s a throwback to an earlier era.

The Boston Globe notes that…Bath is only a half a tank north of Boston. jeb