GARDINER

city, Kennebec county, southwestern Maine, U.S., on the Kennebec River (head of navigation) just south of Augusta and bounding the towns of Farmingdale, West Gardiner, and Richmond. Founded in 1754 by Sylvester Gardiner as Gardinerstown Plantation, it was set off from Pittston in 1760 and was incorporated as a town in 1803. By 1850, when it became a city, it had acquired shoe factories, paper mills, and woodworking shops. One of the first workable steam automobiles in America was built there in 1858. It was the boyhood home of the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson (18691935) and is considered to be the Tilbury Town of his poems. Laura E. Richards (18501943) lived in Gardiner, where she wrote many of her novels, including Captain January (1890). Pop. (1990) 6,746; (1996 est.) 6,469.