Town of Lisbon, Maine
Source: Town of Lisbon, Maine Website
Lisbon Town Offices
Located 20 miles north and inland from Portland, Lisbon is a colorful trio of communities, including Lisbon, Lisbon Center, and Lisbon Falls. Established along the banks of the Sabattus and Androscoggin Rivers, Lisbon began as Thompsonborough, named after a local landowner, General Samuel Thompson. Besides being a very long name, the locals disagreed with Thompson’s views and changed the name to Lisbon in 1802.
Starting as a farming community, Lisbon, using the energy of the rivers, developed into a mill town. The Worumbo Mill, which produced woolens, founded in 1864, was the town’s largest employer until a fire destroyed the mill in 1987. Today, Lisbon is a residential community for the close-by communities of Bath, Freeport, and, increasingly, Portland.
Conveniently located close to I-95, ten minutes to the west, and I-295 ten minutes to the east, Lisbon is experiencing revitalization and is an attractive option for those looking for a more affordable community with easy access to major cities. Not only is Lisbon a great place to live, but it’s also a fun place to visit, with many dining and shopping options and outdoor activities. It’s also the site of the annual Moxie Festival and the adolescent stomping grounds of famed Maine author Stephen King, who graduated from Lisbon Falls High School.
Exploring Lisbon Maine
Source: The Moxie Festival Website
The Moxie Car Show is one of the many events hosted during the festival.
Home of the Moxie Festival
Lisbon has been home to the annual Moxie Festival since 1982. A New England cult favorite beverage, you either love a swig of Moxie, or you don’t, but either way, who doesn’t love a celebration. Often described as tasting like a sweet root beer with a medicinal aftertaste, Moxie is made with a not-so-secret ingredient: gentian root extract, which accounts for its bitter aftertaste.
Moxie was made the official soft drink of Maine in 2005. Maine native Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union concocted with the soft drink in the late 1800s, and it was first marketed as an elixir and called “Moxie Nerve Food,” claiming to help with many ailments. Thompson says he named the beverage after a friend of his, Lieutenant Moxie, and over time the word has come to mean grit, determination, and fortitude.
Held annually in July (on the second weekend), the Moxie Festival sees up to 40,000 visitors flood the Lisbon streets for a parade, fireworks, a 5K road race, and a car show. The festivities now include Moxie Cruise Nights held every Monday night during the summer at the Worumbo Mill Site, with music, food trucks, and, of course, Moxie.
Guests of Lisbon can stay at Dormer Motel, a small but nice inn right near downtown Lisbon. Other lodging nearby includes the Comfort Inn in Brunswick or Comfort Suites in Freeport, both less than 15 minutes away from Lisbon.
Stephen King’s Youthful Stomping Grounds
Author Stephen King, born in Portland, Maine, lived in various places until his mother, raising Stephen and his brother David alone, settled in Durham, just a few miles down the road from Lisbon. Stephen attended the one-room Durham Elementary School and Lisbon Falls High School, where he graduated in 1966.
Here are a few interesting tidbits about Stephen King and his connections to Lisbon. Durham didn’t have a high school, nor a school bus, so King and three of his classmates commuted to Lisbon Falls High. The town arranges for Mike’s Taxi out of Lisbon to haul them to school. The taxi, a limousine, just happens to be a converted hearse. Carrie White, the protagonist of his supernatural horror novel Carrie, was based on one of his fellow taxi riders.
Stephen King lovers know that his stories have roots in Maine, but few are as prevalently based in reality as 11/22/63. In this time-traveling book about preventing the JFK assassination, the main character lives in Lisbon and teaches at its high school. Many of the settings, landmarks, and even people in this book are real—though not Al’s Diner, unfortunately. If you’ve read the book, you’ll feel immersed in the mind of the protagonist Jake Epping as you’re walking around Lisbon.
When King was 19, he got a summer job at Worumbo Mill in Lisbon Falls and worked the 3 to 11 p.m. shift. His brief and unpleasant experience was the inspiration for his book “Graveyard Shift,” his first financial success. There’s more, but we need to get back to the actual story here and talk about Lisbon; we’ll catch up on Stephen King trivia when we cover his home in Bangor.
Source: Little Ridge Farm Website
Little Ridge Farm
Walking Trails and Working Farms
Centrally located, Beaver Park, off of Cotton Road in Lisbon, has it all—stocked ponds for fishing to a one-mile-long fitness challenge—this well-maintained in-town park has year-round activities for the entire family. There are seven miles of hiking and cross-country ski trails, pond skating, picnic areas, and baseball diamonds “right in your own backyard.”
There’s a lot to see along the banks of the Sabattus and Androscoggin Rivers. Miller Park is the confluence of the two rivers, and the nearby Paper Mill Trail follows along the Sabattus River, a 4-mile round-trip hike or bike through fields and woods with beautiful river views.
The rich and fertile soil that drew early settlers to the area long ago is now the setting for farms that open their doors to the public and share their bounty. One is Little Ridge Farm, and it offers a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). As a member, you are invited to seasonal Pick Your Own (PYO) events as fruits and vegetables ripen. Little Ridge is Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) certified. There’s also Springworks Farm, an experimental farming project using aquaponics to grow produce year-round in a closed system using only water, fish, and plants. They have plans to expand, which is pretty cool! Check out their website for where they sell their produce locally.
Shopping and Eating in Lisbon
There are many excellent downtown shopping and dining venues. For hearty and homemade Italian meals based on traditional family recipes, check out the popular Grazi To Go. A new kid on the block, Frank’s Restaurant and Pub, is in the old “Moxie Store.” Aptly named Frank’s after the former owner who loved all things Moxie and helped organize the Moxie Festival. “Two brothers with one mission” are the force behind Flux. They use locally sourced ingredients to make an ever-changing menu that is described as modern American cuisine. Flux also features locally crafted beers and wines.
Nearby Frank’s and Flux is Eastcraeft, a popular boutique offering fashionable clothing for women, girls, and children. There’s an Aubuchon Hardware close by, too, a family-owned New England hardware chain with aisles and aisles of hardware for just about any kind of household or construction need. The Sausage Kitchen on Main Street in Lisbon has an extensive selection of all-natural, small-batch sausages and other products using pork, turkey, beef, and lamb.
And that’s just a smattering of the local Lisbon scene—there’s a lot of small-town charm mixed with a chill vibe to this growing riverside community!
