Mexico’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 4 old photos of Mexico. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The land was once part of Holmanstown Plantation, granted by the Massachusetts General Court in 1789 to Colonel Jonathan Holman of Sutton, Massachusetts (now Millbury) and others. In 1803, Dixfield was set off and incorporated. The plantation's remaining portion, which had been first settled by Isaac Gleason, was incorporated on February 13, 1818, as the town of Mexico. The name was inspired by local sympathy for Mexico's 1810–1821 fight for independence from Spain. Then known as Mexico Corner, it developed as a farming community with mills at the streams. In 1894, George W. Ridlon, president of the Rumford Falls Brick Company, founded a settlement in the eastern part of the town called Ridlonville. He erected 30 cottages and The Hotel Ridlon.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Mexico’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Mexico’s history is told.
3 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewBrook, 1890: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Mexico
See all 2 →
Mexico, decade by decade
![Poem by Gilbert comparing houses in Maine and Mexico, with illustrations.] [Perspective projections; sketches](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/23496/8e95feed84698c585102-s.jpg)
1960s
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Brook (1890) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (4) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.