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Dedham: The Lake Lifestyle
Each of the lots around the 14 miles of Phillips Lake shoreline
has minimum 100 feet of waterfront. |
Drivers who think
that Dedham is a one-road town between Ellsworth and Bangor, a place
you pass through at highway speeds, should take a detour toward the
leaf-hidden lakes and ponds—any of the 15 located here.
At the far end of
the Route 1A, Dedham is 13 miles up the road from Ellsworth and 13
miles short of Bangor. Stop at the light where Routes 1A and 46
intersect, where the G&M Variety Store and Dorsey’s Furniture anchor
each corner, and you’re already past Dedham—those businesses are in
Holden.
“We are definitely
more oriented toward Bangor and Brewer, than Ellsworth,” said Gail
Smith, clerk of the Lucerne village that, quite interestingly,
stands by itself within the larger town of Dedham. (See story on
this page.)
Both lakeside
living, and the notion of a village falling within town limits, are
two of Dedham’s more unusual elements.
As the last town in
Hancock County before the Penobscot County line, Dedham is largely
regarded as a bedroom community for Bangor.
It simply doesn’t
have a downtown—just plenty of high hills that make for dramatic
views from Route 1A, whatever the season.
Nor does driving
through alter the impression that anyone actually lives or works in
Dedham. Even the town office has a mailing address elsewhere.
(Dedham doesn’t have its own post office, so town mail ends up at an
East Holden post office box.)
Impressions aside,
Dedham residents are more plentiful than ever before. They are just
tucked away in the woods, many of them living on Phillips Lake or
Green Lake year-round, and some of them only seasonally.
Dedham definitely
has become a peaceful, popular place.
There are 1,422
residents, according to the 2000 census. The number just about
doubles in summer, according to town office officials.
Dedham’s 1,422 is
about 200 more than 10 years earlier. It’s also exactly 600
residents more than in 1980, when just 821 people called Dedham
home.
“The town has grown
like crazy,” Gail Smith said.
“We are not far at
all from Brewer and Bangor, yet there is this feeling of living in
the country. It’s a small-town type of community. People love that.”
The number of
homes, on the lakes and otherwise, has jumped tremendously, too, in
the last 20 years.
That’s partly
because so many of Dedham’s newer property owners made the move out
to the woods from Brewer and Bangor. Many of them either built along
the Upper Dedham Road or turned their lakefront camps into
year-round residences.
In 1980, there were
only 310 year-round homes in Dedham, plus 511 seasonal homes.
Currently, there are 576 year-round homes and 479 seasonal homes.
Such demographics
make for a wave of summer people hitting town once a year for life
on the lake. All of which continues the traditions laid down in
1927, when the Lucerne-in-Maine Village Corp. was formed and
lakeside living was encouraged.
Close to 80 years
later, 1,400 people still find life on the lake the way life should
be. |
