The Woodstock post office opened in 1817, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, North Woodstock (1847) and South Woodstock (1874), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 392 in 18202020 census: 1,352209 years
How historic is Woodstock?
A−
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Woodstock post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Woodstock’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Woodstock is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Woodstock’s overall grade.
Maine towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Maine town has 15.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Woodstock’s 16.2 sits near the middle of its state (53% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.6 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Woodstock’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Woodstock was first settled in about 1808 as Plantation Number Three. In 1814, a petition was sent to the Massachusetts General Court of Boston that requested the plantation be incorporated into a town called Sparta. Massachusetts Governor Caleb Strong approved the petition on February 7, 1815, to establish the town of Woodstock. It is unclear why the name Woodstock was chosen.
The village of Bryant Pond is believed to be the last telephone exchange in the U.S. to convert from operator-based hand-crank service to direct-dial service. The conversion occurred on October 11, 1983.
Passages that mention Woodstock, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Bethel, formerly Sudbury, Canada, Oxford County, Maine, 1768-18901891 · page 91Read the page →
Read the text
Sheriff Strickland of Penobscot county was directed to drive the trespassers away. He went to Aroostook with a posse of two hundred men, and the trespassers retreated before him across the border. But at the provincial town of Woodstock, they broke into the arsenal, and having armed themselves, they turned back to meet the sheriff's posse. They captured the Maine Land Agent, and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, from its first settlement in 1779, to the present time1890 · page 223Read the page →
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In the olden times, there was a small village in the town of Woodstock, on the thoroughfare between Eumford and Paris, where people were in the habit of congregating on Saturday afternoons, to run, wrestle, pitch quoits and engage in other manly sports. At such times the ardent flowed freely, and the exercises would sometimes close with almost a tragedy instead of a farce. Eumford people were often here, including Mr. Wood who was fond of exhibiting his great strength and not averse to indulging in the use of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, from its first settlement in 1779, to the present time1890 · page 197Read the page →
Read the text
cluding seven days labor by Lemuel Jackson, Jr., and six by Nicholas Chesley, was $99.00. The road here described, and which was opened within a year or two, did not follow the old spotted line and path through Number 3, now Woodstock, but passed over the high lands of that town, where the Bryants soon after began a settlement, and intersected the old foot-path at North Woodstock.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Woodstock, 1817 to 1976
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Woodstock post office opened in 1817, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Woodstock rank for history?
Woodstock is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Woodstock?
Two places: the Whitman Memorial Library (listed 1995) and the Franklin Grange #124 (2025).
How old are the homes in Woodstock?
24% of Woodstock’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.6 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1986.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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