Item 31611info Maine Historic Preservation Commission
Main Street in Caribou with the Powers Theater at the right. "Bubbles" with Mary Anderson is showing at the theater. The Powers, which closed in the early 1970s, had started as the Gem Opera House in the 1920s.
Caribou was incorporated in 1859 and had 5,377 residents in 1910. It had a variety of water-powered mills and was a major commercial center of Aroostook County. The water power came from Caribou Stream and the Aroostook River.
The town's first potato starch factory began operating in 1871 and became one of the nation's largest starch operations.
