Taken from the Ground: Leeds, Maine in the Twentieth Century

Elizabeth Mitchell Lynn

This work looks at the evolution of Leeds, Maine. “Leeds has always been in a state of change, given to complexities and driven by dissatisfaction. In the past eighty years, the rate of change has been rapid indeed. Leeds has been transformed from a town of small family farms, isolated and intimate, into a diverse, diffuse residential community. When told by the generation whose lives have spanned these changes, the story is one of substantial gains: gains in educational opportunities, in work choices, in material comforts, and in access to the world beyond Leeds’ borders. But the story is one of losses as well: the loss of an intimately known landscape and community, the loss of certain circumscribed ways of life and ways of looking at life.” Residents speak of “a loss of innocence, a loss of Eden.” The first portion of the work, “The Lay of the Land,” examines geography, transportation and neighborhoods. The second portion of the work, “The Ways of the People,” discusses work and community which includes: “Parties of Hope: 1901,” “State of Seige: 1901–1950,” and “A New Vision: 1950–1980.” A bibliography, a chronology of Leeds history (1779–1981) and a map of Leeds (1912) augment the text.