BACKSPACE: When North Penobscot was the heart of a community

Area’s second-oldest church, which was moved eight miles away, was among the buildings that included a schoolhouse and Grange Hall

North Penobscot had a central—and thriving—community decades ago. Photo courtesy of the Penobscot Marine Museum.

June 16, 2026 

PENOBSCOT — The intersection of Routes 199 and 15 was once the heart of community life in North Penobscot.  A schoolhouse stood to the left of the Highland Grange Hall, and the Methodist church was just down the road. 

Now all the buildings are gone. The schoolhouse was moved down Route 199 and used as a private residence until it burned in 1974. The Grange became inactive and was sold in 1984, and the adjacent houses burned in a fire that spread from a blueberry burn behind the buildings. The church, the second oldest church building on the Blue Hill Peninsula, was moved in 1991 to Blue Hill and is now St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church.

An Episcopal congregation began forming in Blue Hill in 1975. It held services in various locations as the size of the congregation grew. In December 1989 it purchased the vacant North Penobscot Methodist Church, which had no heat or plumbing. In the spring, members spruced up the building, moved in an organ, borrowed a heater, rented a portable toilet, and celebrated an Easter Festival Eucharist. Sunday services were held in North Penobscot all summer, with as many as 90 people in attendance.

A donation of land on Route 177 in Blue Hill spurred the congregation to establish a building fund for moving the North Penobscot Church.  In January 1991, the church building was cut into four pieces and moved eight miles to its new site. On May 19, 1991 the congregation gathered for the first Eucharist in the building’s new location.

— Historical summary written by Audrey and Berwyn Peasley, Penobscot Historical Society

“BACKSPACE” is a partnership between the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport and The Rising Tide that showcases the unique coastal and maritime history of our towns in and around the Blue Hill Peninsula. For more information about the Penobscot Marine Museum, please visit their website.