The city of Bath's population, which dropped more than 5 percent in the past decade, is about the same today as it was a century ago. The town of West Bath grew by 5 percent.
These two municipalities share the same telephone exchange and postal code, and although they split apart in 1844 to form independent governments, they are essentially the same community, many residents say.
But in appearance and function, they are different worlds.
Compact and walkable, Bath typifies the way Maine grew in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, when city populations were surging and the automobile had yet to dominate the state's transportation system. The house lots are generally small, and the curbed streets are laid in a grid. Sidewalks lead everywhere.
West Bath is the archetype for how growth has occurred in Maine since 1950 and is continuing today. Houses sit on one- or three-acre lots, as the town requires, and commerce is confined to a highway strip. There are few subdivision streets. Rather, the houses have been built along old roads once used by farmers. The most expensive homes, many of them former camps, are along deep-water inlets.
West Bath used to be a farming community. Bazin Lemont, 79, remembers when he was a boy and his father's dairy farm was the town's largest. Every winter morning, he and his father delivered milk to Bath in a horse-drawn sleigh. They rode a milk wagon in the summer.
His father, however, had trouble keeping farmhands because work at the Bath shipyards offered better pay. West Bath's population was stagnant, and it had been in decline for decades, as in many rural Maine towns. Farmers also struggled to compete against bigger farms beyond New England that had more modern equipment and better soils.
Between 1850 and 1930, West Bath's population had dropped by more than half. In 1947, the town lost Bazin Lemont, who decide he didn't want to be a struggling farmer. He took at job at Bath Iron Works and moved to the city. Lemont and his wife, Elaine, raised five boys and lived in Bath because they wanted their sons to be able to walk everywhere, rather than be driven.
Bath reached its peak population during World War I, when the shipyard was booming. Census workers in 1920 counted nearly 15,000 people. When Lemont arrived, it had fallen to around 10,600.
Starting around World War II, the population of West Bath began to increase. The growth came from people who wanted to live in West Bath but worked in urban areas, or from people who made their money in cities and came to retire.
The shift from cities to smaller towns began in other parts of Maine, too, as families in the thriving postwar economy headed to the outskirts for their hew homes.
State and federal officials encouraged the migration, funding highway projects that made commuting long distances easier and faster. Towns enacted ordinances to aid the rapid flow of traffic. Businesses and homes were relegated to separate zones. To keep their towns' rural character and slow growth, officials required house lots to be large.
Still, with so much open land in small towns like West Bath, there was plenty of room to grow.
In 1990, after his retirement, Bazin Lemont moved back to West Bath on land he had inherited from his mother. In the time he was gone, the town's population had more than tripled.
His family's 240-acre dairy farm, which his father sold in 1942, has been split up several times. The pastures have turned into forests or house lots. The new West Bath District Court House sits on a piece of the former farm.
Today, there are no farms left in West Bath – proof that he made the right decision to leave the dairy business, Bazin Lemont said.
"It's all turned out pretty much as I expected," he said.
In 1950, a majority of Maine's population lived in urban areas. By 1990, more than 55 percent of Mainers lived in small towns like West Bath, which the Census Bureau defines as rural.
But while West Bath looks rural, it functions as a suburb, said Richard Sherwood, state demographer. The same can be said for most towns in Maine, he said.
"Maine is an urban labor force living in a dispersed, rural settlement pattern," he said. "Look at the the people living in rural areas. They are not farmers, fishermen or loggers. They work in nearby cities."
Sherwood grew up in Bath during the 1940s. His family had a car. But like many families in cities like Portland and Lewiston, Sherwood walked to school, and his father, who worked at the shipyard, walked to work. At the end of each shift change, he said, he would see scores of men striding up the hill, all heading home on foot. Now he sees traffic jams.
Today, only about 10 percent of BIW's employees live in Bath. More than two-thirds live outside Sagadahoc County.
Although the country's population has grown by only 4 percent since 1990, the number of annual vehicle miles traveled between 1990 and 1999 has grown 28 percent. The same pattern is seen elsewhere in Maine. In Cumberland County, the number of annual vehicle miles traveled increased 27 percent, to 3 billion miles traveled each year.
The automobile has provided Mainers freedom, too. In West Bath and other towns, cars have allowed residents to enjoy living in a country setting without missing out on the shopping, cultural and recreational opportunities found in the city.
In West Bath, residents have "the best of both worlds," said Selectman Ronald Beal.
Real estate agent Sharon Drake said the proximity to Bath adds value to the homes in outlying areas. Indeed, many residents in West Bath and surrounding towns say they're part of Greater Bath.
Except when it comes to taxes. The owner of a $100,000 home in Bath pays $650 more in property taxes annually than the owner of an equally valued home in West Bath.
Although West Bath is expanding its fire station and hired its first full-time administrator last year, taxes remain low. Towns can absorb growth for many years without raising taxes, according to a state analysis, but there eventually comes a point when demand for services becomes so high that the tax rate explodes. Falmouth and York are experiencing that now.
Typically, Maine's suburban towns offer lower tax rates than nearby cities and larger towns. Bath City Planner Jim Upham said residents in Bath and Maine's other cities are subsidizing the migration to the suburbs. Lower taxes is one of the factors causing people to leave cities, according to the State Planning Department.
Bath taxpayers, for example, help pay for West Bath's police protection, Upham said, through their tax contributions to county government. Bath residents – through state taxes – subsidize a highway system that is under stress from increasing commuter traffic.
Moreover, even though the state's student population is in decline, the state continues to build new schools in fast-growing suburbs, and state taxpayers pick up most of the bill.
"This doesn't make any sense at all," Upham said. "I don't care if people move to the countryside or not. People should have the right to live where they want. But the people who are staying behind should not subsidize that right."
Beal says Bath taxes are high because the city has a bigger payroll and provides services to people who can't pay their own way. Moreover, he said, West Bath's zoning helps prevent the construction of low-cost housing that would increase demands for services and consequently taxes.
"Cities draw a certain type of people," he said. "And Bath has more subsidized housing than any city. Where was the city council and planning board when this came in? Why did they let that happen? They created their own problem."
Staff Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:
tbell@pressherald.com
Census counts for every town and city in the state. 4B
Earlier censuses provide a rich history of Maine. 8B
Bath reached its peak population during World War I, when the shipyard was booming. Census workers in 1920 counted nearly 15,000 people.
The owner of a $100,000 home in Bath pays $650 more in property taxes annually than the owner of an equally valued home in West Bath.
Bath reached its peak population during World War I, when the shipyard was booming. Census workers in 1920 counted nearly 15,000 people.
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