As Maine communities began to lose their frontier aspects in the 19th century and assume a more settled countenance, rudimentary civic improvements were initiated. Among these improvements in the largely agricultural world of rural Maine were those concerned with the regulation of livestock. To control the problem of loose cattle, hogs, or sheep towns constructed open air shelters, known as pounds or cattle pounds, to temporarily corral wayward animals. The existence of 21 of these structures in Maine has been verified, and their condition varies from almost unrecognizable to good. Erected in 1836 in central Oxford County, the Greenwood Cattle Pound was listed in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A at the local level of significance as an example of a facility used to regulate one aspect of the town?s agricultural economy, and as a representation of an early investment in its civic infrastructure.