Rumford
Welcome to Rumford!
Rumford was first settled in the late eighteenth century and incorporated in 1800. Many settlers came from Concord, New Hampshire, which was named Rumford at the time, thus inspiring the name of this new town. The downtown area is centered around Rumford Falls on the Androscoggin River.
Rumford was mainly an agricultural area until 1882, when the industrialist Hugh Chisholm began construction of a railway line to Rumford and the Oxford Paper Company in order to harness the water power potential of the falls. The paper mill drastically increased Rumford’s population and prosperity for many years, and the mill continues to dominate Rumford’s downtown area. Since the mill’s heyday in the early 20th century, the town’s population has slowly declined, but the grandeur of those days is still very visible, and the surrounding hills and forests have led to an increase in tourists visiting the area. With a population of nearly 6,000, Rumford remains the largest town in Oxford County, Maine.
Fun Facts
- Rumford is the birthplace of Edmund Muskie, who served as Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter as well as US Senator and Governor of Maine. Famous film composer Frank Churchill and several Olympic athletes also hail from Rumford.
- Strathglass Park, the company housing district created for the Oxford Paper Company, was considered the country’s finest company housing project at that time.