Winslow, Maine

 town (New England / New York), draw only border, CDP - Census Designated Place

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Winslow is a town and census-designated place in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, along the Kennebec River. The population was 7,743 at the 2000 census. Winslow was originally settled by colonists from Plymouth Colony. The area was covered by the land patent given by the English Crown to Pilgrim governor William Bradford and his associates. The earliest settlers had such Old Colony and Pilgrim names as Winslow, Bradford, Warren, and Otis. Descendants of those early settlers can still be found in the town.

In 1754, Fort Halifax was built by order of the Massachusetts General Court on the peninsula at the confluence of the Sebasticook and Kennebec rivers. A settlement subsequently sprang up under its protection, and was named in honor of General John Winslow, of Marshfield, Massachusetts who had overseen the fort's construction. General Winslow was a descendant of Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim governor of Plymouth Colony who arrived on the Mayflower and founded the town of Marshfield. General Winslow lived in the mansion built in 1699 by his father, Isaac Winslow. The historic Winslow House still stands today in Marshfield and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Sebasticook and Kennebec rivers provided major early routes to transport food, goods, and more settlers. Benedict Arnold followed the Kennebec River north in 1775, stopping at Fort Halifax in Winslow on his ill-fated attempt to invade Canada. The Fort Halifax blockhouse, formerly the nation's oldest wooden structure of its type, was rebuilt after the original was swept down the Kennebec River by raging flood waters on April 1, 1987.

Thousands of Irish and French Canadian immigrants used the Old Canada Road (now a scenic byway) section of U.S. Route 201 during the 19th century to find seasonal or project employment, and later make the Kennebec River Valley region their home. Modern Winslow developed around the Hollingsworth & Whitney Company paper mill, located along the Kennebec River. The mill was later purchased by the Scott Paper Company, whose 1995 merger with Kimberly-Clark led to the factory's closure in 1997. Winslow's industrial decline started in the 1980s, although some small light industry still exists, and new businesses continue to move into the town. Despite this, the service sector remains limited. Today, Winslow is a bedroom community for many middle and upper middle class families who work in nearby Waterville and Augusta.

Scenes from the 2005 miniseries Empire Falls, starring Paul Newman, Ed Harris, and Helen Hunt, and based on the 2001 book Empire Falls by Richard Russo, were shot in Winslow. The town is home to the state's largest 4 July fireworks display.