Criterion A: Entertainment/Recreation
Criterion A: Conservation
Period of Significance: 1925 - 1972
Local Level of Significance
Marginal Way in Ogunquit, York County, Maine is a one and one-quarter mile pedestrian path along the rocky shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean. Marginal Way, together with its access paths, is significant under Criterion A for association with entertainment and recreation in this coastal resort town and for conservation of this stretch of shoreline for public use. Sections of Marginal Way were surveyed as early as 1891 as part of a subdivision for summer cottages. The developer, Josiah Chase, initially intended the path as right-of-way and common space for lot holders in his subdivision. In 1925 Chase donated Marginal Way and the land between the path and the ocean to the Ogunquit Village Corporation to be maintained for public use. Chase's donation conserved this land for public use which in turn allowed it to be developed as an important component of Ogunquits tourism culture and economy. Additional easements extended the length of the path in the late 1950s. The period of significance is from the 1925 donation of the path to the Ogunquit Village Corporation to 1972 which represents the fifty-year cutoff.