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History · Verona Island

40% of Verona Island’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1900 on and the census since 1840.

0on the National Register
40%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 4.0

What stands out about Verona Island’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Verona Island are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1850 and 1930, then more than doubled.On the map since 19004 editions of the USGS map, 1900 to 1982. Watch Verona Island change.Old housesHalf of Verona Island’s homes were built before 1949.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Verona Island’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Verona Island’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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People over time

Verona Island, census by census

01002003004005006001850190019502000405 in 1850Low: 228

Lost a third of its people between 1850 and 1930, then more than doubled.

18 censuses, 1840–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Verona Island’s Wikipedia page.

On the map

Verona Island on the map, 1900 to 1982

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Verona Island. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Verona Island on the 1900 USGS mapVerona Island on the 1942 USGS mapVerona Island on the 1955 USGS mapVerona Island on the 1982 USGS map1900Bucksport sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Verona Island.

The story

How Verona Island came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Verona Island.

Read it all →

The island and community has undergone numerous name changes. It was originally Penobscot Island, part of the Waldo Patent. When Henry Knox bequeathed it to his orphaned grandchildren, it became known as Orphan Island. In 1839 it became the plantation of Wetmore Isle. The name was changed to Verona (after Verona, Italy) upon its incorporation as a town on February 18, 1861. The town lengthened its name to Verona Island, matching the name of the landform on which it was located, in a March 27, 2004 referendum.

The island was once a shipbuilding village. In 1905 the last vessel was built. This was the Roosevelt, which carried Robert Peary from New York to the Arctic in 1908 for his final expedition to the North Pole.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Verona Island, 1884 to 1980

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1884Post officeThe Verona post office opens
  3. 1887Post officeThe Verona post office closes
  4. 20th century
  5. 1900On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 559
By decade

Verona Island, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Verona Island Maine Sign US12014Verona Island Maine Sign US1The Penobscot River viewed from the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory2013The Penobscot River viewed from the Penobscot Narrows…
Famous people

Famous people close to Verona Island

Nobody well known was born in Verona Island itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Dorothea DixAmerican author and social reformer · b. 1802
Joshua Lawrence ChamberlainAmerican military officer, professor, and 32nd … · b. 1828
Frederick LowGovernor of California · b. 1828
Tim SylviaAmerican mixed martial artist · b. 1976
Ezra AbbotAmerican librarian and biblical scholar · b. 1819
Graham PlatnerAmerican oyster farmer, harbormaster, and polit… · b. 1984
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Another post office, Verona, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
VeronaVerona Park
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Verona Island
VillageWhitmanWhitman

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

OrlandIts storyBStockton Springs5 historic placesB+Prospect2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBucksport9 historic placesA−

Questions about Verona Island’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.