 The town was incorporated in 1791, and grew in the 19th century as a shipping and shipbuilding port.Its Main Street (now U.S. Route 1 [US 1]) developed in part across the dam that spans the river just above the harbor, and was lined with mainly wood frame commercial and residential buildings until 1 AM on November 10¸ 1892, when a fire began on the east side of Main Street.The fire swept across Main Street, destroying everything on the dam, and then moved south, across Mechanic Street, to destroy the buildings on the north side of Elm Street (the southern continuation of Main Street, also US 1), as far south as Washington Street.