Alderbrook developed around a sawmill built by H.C. Libbey in 1877. The village grew to include a post office, a dozen company-owned houses, a boarding house, school and railroad station. The mill employed as many as 40 to 60 men and cut as much as 3 to 5 million board feet each year of lumber, clapboards, lath and shingles. It was sold to a Portland company in July 1909 and was destroyed by fire five months later. The blaze was likely started by a spark from a freight engine. The mill was not rebuilt and the once productive hamlet disappeared as the company left for other tracts of timber.