OTISFIELD — The Otisfield Town Pound has been entered in the National Register of Historic Places, according to Maine Historic Preservation Commission Director Kirk F. Mohney.

The designation indicates that the property has been documented, evaluated and considered worthy of preservation and protection as part of the nation’s cultural heritage.

The Otisfield Town Pound is near the geographic center of Otisfield in Oxford County. The stone animal enclosure is near the early settlement centered on Bell Hill and is the only known pound for the town. Construction was approved at the 1818 town meeting, and it was built by the first pound keeper, Stephen Knight, in 1819.

The pound is locally significant under Criterion A for its association with agriculture, early settlement and law. The rock structure reflects the region’s early settlers’ legal response to managing wandering livestock. The town pound, like a town jail, provided a means to detain an animal that violated personal property rights.

Pound keepers were appointed until 1904 in Otisfield, but the post became more honorary as agriculture in Maine declined in the later 19th century. The period of significance extends from the 1819 construction date to 1882, by which time agriculture in the area had declined, fencing had improved, and keepers were selected from outlying villages, which made use of the pound inconvenient and infrequent.