Camden's maritime history extends beyond its working waterfront. As part of the Camden Windjammer Festival participating businesses are displaying special history plaques in their windows, illustrating what past uses their buildings enjoyed in the heyday of sail. The plaques, created by the Chamber of Commerce, Down East, Adventure Advertising, and the Camden Public Library, tell stories large and small about life in the early 1900s.

The free self-guided trail wends its way through Camden and is a great way for residents to learn more about their communtity and for visitors to discover the diverse neighborhoods and business districts in this small, walkable town. You can pick up your copy of the trail at the Windjammer Festival HQ on the Public Landing from noon on Friday.

Participating this year are:

1. Camden Public Landing, Schooner Olad: The Public Landing once housed the Camden Anchor Works: the largest anchor factory in the United States by the end of the 19th century. The factory diversified, building boats, launches, and engines for the US Navy through World War One. The factory closed in 1925. local benefactor Mary Bok paid for the Public Landing to be built in 1938.

2. Camden Public Landing, Festival HQ: From the 1850s through the 1920s, Nicholas Berry's sail loft was located on this northern end of what is now the Public Landing and Bayview Landing. The M.C. Whitmore Wharf, a lumber and building supply company, occupied this end of the landing for much of the same period: a time which saw rapid expansion of both industry and population throughout the town.

3. Camden Public Landing, Small Wonder Gallery: Back in the 1830s, if you needed anything for the nautical trades, you stopped by the Joseph Jones Block, now home to the Small Wonder Gallery. Home to a ship's chandler and steamship agent, mariners and landlubbers alike could avail themselves of fishing supplies, outfits, and provisions as well as tickets to points south and down east.

4. 24 Bayview Street (ocean side), Theo B. Camisole: Bayview Street was laid out in its current form in 1866, filing in wharves that had once run from Chestnut Street. Theo B. Camisole — now a home to delicate luxury — once housed rough and ready coalmen and bunker fuel for the many vessels that called in the harbor.

5. 36 Bayview Street (ocean side), Admiral’s Buttons: In the age of sail Bayview Street was comprised of wharves and work spaces for the marine industry: coaling stations, blacksmiths, and so forth. The Admiral's Buttons saw in the turn of the 20th century as Bird Bros & Willey Wharf.

6. 40 Bayview Street (ocean side), Waterfront Restaurant:The Waterfront Restaurant is a Camden institution:, but it only seems as if it has been there since the town was founded! In 1896 on this site Justus C. Strawbridge operated a wharf and marine railway. Like More recently the Waterfront Restaurant witnessed the birth of Down East, the Magazine of Maine, in 1954.

7. 1 Main Street, Cappy’s Chowder House: Cappy's was originally built for Charles Weatherbee and James Bird in 1828. Weatherbee & Bird were cordwainers: they made shoes from new leather (cobblers repaired shoes). Camden's leatherwork tradition continued on a large scale until very recently when the Apollo Tannery on Washington Street closed shop. 

8. 31 Main Street, Once a Tree: Home of Camden's daily bread from 1771 until the 1940s. A grist mill was located on this spot for 169 years, allowing local farmers to make flour for the local populace. The space transitioned to a Studebaker dealership and then into the ladies dress store the Tweed Shop- the store run by Lana Turner's character in "Peyton Place".

9. 41 Main Street, The Smiling Cow: The Smiling Cow is a historic institution in and of itself. In business since 1940 and owned by the same family the whole time, the store is a tribute to one Margaret Hawkey's drive to provide for her family in trying times. The building itself was originally a photographer's studio located on Elm Street: it was moved to its current position over the falls in 1919.

10. 59 Sea Street, Wayfarer Marine: Built as a salt wharf in the 1850s with landing stages for the regular steamboat traffic, the site now occupied by Wayfarer Marine came to prominence as the Bean Yard, shipbuilders of uncommon vision and ambition. The Bean Yard was famous for building ships of all sizes, including the world’s first six-masted schooner named the George W. Wells.

11. 52 High Street, Whitehall Inn: In 1901, a young widow, who had spent her honeymoon in Camden, purchased an 1834 Sea Captains house. The first of only six owners, she took in a handful of summer guests for income, and then added rooms each year until she operated Whitehall, one of five hotels in Camden at the start of the century. The inn has welcomed a king, a U.S. President and other political notables, many fabled screen stars and sports heroes. One of America’s most beloved poets, Edna St. Vincent Millay, was “discovered” in the hotel.

12.  32 Main Street, House of Logan: 32 Main Street was built in 1893 as the Fletcher Building as part of a wave of renewal on Main Street, a year after the great fire had devastated downtown. Originally home to Page’s Confectionery ( who sold candy, soda, fruit, and cigars) 32 Main now houses the House of Logan, a retailer of exquisite clothing and accessories.

 13. 30 Main Street, Boynton McKay: Boynton-McKay Food Co. is housed in the 1893 Edwin C. Fletcher Block which was built for Boynton Pharmacy and soda fountain, which remained in operation until 1996 (having become Boynton-McKay in 1924). The cabinets are bird’s eye maple and were built in the store by the Camden Shipbuilding Company. The pressed steel ceiling is original as is the Minton Tile floor. The soda fountain counter and front are entirely of glass with art deco embellishments.

 14. 13 Elm Street, Stonewall Kitchen: Now home to a company store of the iconic Maine business Stonewall Kitchen, this store began life in 1893 as home to a boot and shoe store. The building (more formally the William R. Gill Block) was part of the great civic rebuilding and improvement effort than followed the great fire of 1892. Now stocking much tastier items than shoe leather, this store features meticulously detailed accents and a tin ceiling

15: 113 Elm Street, Cedar Crest Inn: The crew of famed publisher and Camden summer resident Cyrus H.K. Curtis’s yacht The Lyndonia found Elm Street very hospitable in the early 1900s.  In December 1906, Captain Rich purchased the property at 110 Elm Street and a month later Chief Engineer Bennett purchased approximately 10 acres with a house and barn across the road at 115 Elm Street (the current address of Cedar Crest Motel).