Currently a suburban community serving both the Augusta and Lewiston-Auburn areas, Winthrop was part of the Kennebec Purchase awarded by the Plymouth Council for New England. The first recorded settlement was by Timothy Foster in 1765, who was soon followed by several other families.
Although the settlement was first incorporated as Pondtown Plantation, for its several lakes and ponds, when it was incorporated as a town, on April 26, 1771, its name was changed to Winthrop, after the first colonial governor of Massachusetts. A portion of the town was set off and incorporated as Readfield in 1791; and over the next century, it ceded to, or annexed land from, surrounding communities eleven times, ending with the annexation of land from Manchester in 1873.
The surface of the town is uneven, but with good land that was soon planted in hay, grain, and apples. Winthrop was at one time known for its orchards and cattle farms. A man by the name of John Chandler built a sawmill in 1768, adding a gristmill soon after. Other industries followed, including a fulling mill, a tannery, and blacksmith operation. By 1886, the town had a sawmill that manufactured two hundred thousand feet of lumber per year, two oil cloth factories, a sash and blind factory, a woolen and cotton plant, a foundry, and a machine shop.
The coming of the railroad opened Winthrop to freight, but also to tourists; and in time, the town was developed into a summer resort and bedroom community, as it remains today. The main village is on a stream linking Maranacook Lake and Anabessacook Lake, with Cobbosseecontee Lake located on the southeastern part of town.