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Maine State Route 232

State highway in Oxford County, Maine, US

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 16, 2025
Entity authorityQ19581405 ↗
Source-derived summary

State Route 232 (abbreviated SR 232) is a 9.41-mile-long (15.14 km) state highway located in Oxford County in western Maine. It begins at SR 26 in Woodstock and ends at U.S. Route 2 (US 2) in Rumford. The highway functions as an eastern bypass of SR 26 and US 2 in Bethel, providing a more direct north-south connection to and from points east.

Route description

SR 232 begins in Woodstock at SR 26 just east of Bryant Pond. It proceeds north, passing through the southeastern corner of Bethel and northwestern corner of Milton before entering the town of Rumford. SR 232 turns northwest and runs along the southern side of the Androscoggin River for about 2.1 miles (3.4 km), then turns east, crosses the river, and terminates at US 2.

History

Most of SR 232, from its southern terminus to its intersection with South Rumford Road in Rumford near the Androscoggin River, was formerly part of SR 120 as it was designated in 1925. When that highway was truncated to US 2 in downtown Rumford in 1955, South Rumford Road was left unnumbered and the remaining stretch south to SR 26 was renumbered to SR 232.

The original Martin Memorial Bridge over the Androscoggin River was built in the mid-to-late 1950s as a 600-foot-long (180 m), 24-foot-wide (7.3 m) steel truss bridge. In 2011, the Federal Highway Administration declared the bridge structurally deficient.

Editorial summary

“Maine State Route 232” enters the record as state highway in Oxford County, Maine, US. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Maine, State and Route can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1925, 1955, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1955. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Maine, State and Route.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Maine State Route 232” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Maine, State and Route provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q19581405. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1955 and 2011.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Maine State Route 232”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Maine State Route 232 primary sources, Maine State Route 232 archive and Maine research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Maine State Route 232”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Maine State Route 232” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.