Castine History Signs

A visitor to Castine will immediately notice the hand-painted signs throughout town with historic narratives describing what took place here. These signs have a long history starting with the first erected in 1908 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Castine. That was just the beginning. In 1910 the town of Castine gave the eleven-person Village Improvement Society $125 to create and place historic signs to help visitors learn Castine’s history.

No doubt the stories told in the signs were deemed accurate when written. But today we realize many of them reflect old interpretations of history. Historians now have access to more primary – meaning original – documents then were available in 1910. Also, history is not static, as each generation interprets events of the past differently. After having been up for over 100 years, the signs are beloved by the citizens of Castine – despite their flawed facts. We encourage you to enjoy our historic signs – but to please take their stories with a grain of salt!