Street View, Stockholm, ME. 103

Street View, Stockholm, ME. 103

The corner of Main Street and School Street, Stockholm, ME. John Anderson’s grocery and merchandise store in the foreground with his house showing and the Oscar Frederick Lutheran Church, built in 1907, in the background. The Anderson Bros. store, built in 1901, remodeled and enlarged some years later is a common two-story frame building that was the first general store Stockholm. It is the only remaining historic store in the village center. In November 1900 John and Lewis Anderson moved from the adjoining town of New Sweden to Stockholm where they established the community’s first general store. They erected a 20' x 20' building, and opened their store in 1901. The impetus for their business venture is related to the fact that Stockholm Plantation (the town was incorporated in 1911) was undergoing a development boom, a direct result of the construction of the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad in 1899 and the establishment of a long lumber mill. This growth is especially evident in the rapid population increase, which rose from 66 persons in 1890 to 715 in 1910. By then, it appears that the Anderson Bros, partnership had dissolved, but a hardware store operated by Lewis Anderson continued until 1927; it was operated thereafter by A. E. Baxter until 1938-39. George D. Fogelin returned the business to a general store that remained in operation until the late 1950s. In 1976 the property was acquired by the newly formed Stockholm Historical Society which maintains it as a museum.