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Ellsworth’s Best Elements: Good-Hearted People
By Katherine Williams
Ellsworth, the
only city within
Hancock
County, bustles by day as the county’s biggest municipality: It’s
where the jobs and the stores are, drawing in hundreds daily from
any of the 36 smaller towns in the rest of the county.
Ellsworth City hall, with handsome rooftop design, is where the
business of the city’s 6,456 residents is conducted. |
Take away the
busy, fast-moving, 9-to-5 pace demanded by business and commercial
interests, and there lies a lovely layer of hometown goodness.
Ellsworth is simply the kind of place that, if you’re local, you are
glad you grew up in.
City Manager Tim
King, who did not grow up here, says it’s the local people who make
life in Ellsworth special.
“They are
wonderful, extremely community spirited,” says King, who grew up in
Bangor and settled in Ellsworth 12 years ago.
“I have lived in
many other parts of
New England,
and the people here may not know what they’ve got.
“It’s not that
Ellsworth or
Maine
is the only place like this, because there are others. But the
people here are friendly, helpful and giving. They make you feel
safe.”
Ellsworth’s
population has grown even beyond the 6,456 figure determined by the
2000 census two years ago. But within those numbers are thousands of
individuals who have spent their whole lives here. They especially
can appreciate Ellsworth for retaining many of the qualities that
lure others here from away.
It’s the locals
who best know everybody else, because they went to school or church
with one another.
Some hold a fond
memory from the 1930s, when High Street was only two lanes and
consisted of open fields mixed with residences.
These are people
who can remember that there used to be a grain store at the present
site of the L.L. Bean outlet, alongside Doug’s Shop ‘n Save (before
Doug’s moved across the street). They also remember Ellsworth High
School before the new building was built in 1995.
With more retail
and commercial activity than ever before, Ellsworth today isn’t
quite the way it used to be.
Diversity in
Ellsworth’s economic development remains one of the city’s
priorities, and the building of the new industrial park is evidence
of that.
But enough
connections to the past keep Ellsworth a feel-good place all around.
Its 93-square miles at the heart of Hancock County represent, to
thousands, a hometown that has, for the most part, maintained its
old-fashioned feel.
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