Boarding/Rooming Houses
There were not enough dorm rooms to accommodate the entire Bowdoin student body in the early 1820s. An already dire situation became much worse when the only dorm building, Maine Hall, burned in a fire on March 4, 1822. To house the students, Bowdoin College relied on local residents who rented out a spare room or two. Some larger establishments, most along Park Row, were run as rooming and boarding houses and housed several Bowdoin students each semester. There was no central dining facility; all students took board with local residents.
Maine Historical Society in Portland, Maine, holds the only known copy of a map of Brunswick from 1828. That map, shown above, is the best source for understanding what Brunswick was like when the Class of 1825 attended Bowdoin; the location of the various boarding/rooming houses where the students stayed and ate are highlighted. Blue indicates approximate or known location while pink indicates possible location (for many houses, the archival record is conflicting).