As paper mills were established at Rumford Falls in the 1890s, many workers and their families settled in Ridlonville in the adjacent town of Mexico.
By 1912, approximately when this photograph was taken, Ridlonville’s Main Street featured several substantial business blocks, including the two in the center dating from 1907, which housed F. F. Beedy’s confectionary, fruit, and tobacco store and A.E. Davis’s dry goods business.
Period soft drink and cigarette advertising signs cover the outside stairs on Beedy’s building.
