36 Pictures Show the Shocking Way Waterville Has Changed in 20 Years

Our cities and towns are always changing.  Businesses close, businesses open, old buildings are torn down, and new buildings are built.  The changing never ends.

Of course, if you live in or travel through an area on a regular basis, you may not really note all of the changes.  They happen slowly over months or years, so they don’t stick out to you.

When you see two photos of the same building taken years apart, the differences are often shocking.

Thanks to Google Street View, we can “time travel” to see what a particular place looked like years ago.

Recently, we did that for Waterville, Maine, and what we saw was kind of shocking.

We tried our best to point out what businesses used to be in these buildings.  Obviously, if we have made a mistake, please let us know.  Send us a message through our radio station app, or send an email to cooper.fox@townsquaremedia.com.

Waterville, Maine

The area that is now Waterville had been inhabited by Native Americans from the Abenaki tribe for hundreds of years.  The first European settlement was called Kingfield Plantation.  In 1771, the settlement incorporated as a town named Winslow, which straddled the Kennebec River.  In 1802, after it became clear that it was difficult for people on the west side of the river to cross for town meetings, the people on the west side split off from Winslow to incorporate as Waterville.

For many decades, Waterville was a center of industry and education.  In addition to being the home of several mills, the city also hosted Colby College.

Currently, the town has a population of just under 16,000 people.

You can learn more about the history of Waterville HERE.