Washington, Maine was first settled in 1797. It was settled by the Nelson family. At that time it was known as Putnam named after General Israel Putnam, a war hero. It was officially changed to Washington in 1825. One early item of interest in Washington's history was the "paint mine". There was a large deposit of red and yellow ocher found in a cave, which may have been used by people who lived here three to five thousand years ago and who used large quantities of ocher, normally red, to cover both the bodies of the dead and the burial artifacts. Archaeologists refer to these people as "Red Paint People". The red panel at the hoist of the Official Town Flag refers to these people.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 39.20 square miles (101.53 km²), of which, 38.04 square miles (98.52 km²) of it is land and 1.16 square miles (3.00 km²) is water.

As of the census of 2010, there were 1,527 people, 614 households, and 427 families residing in the town. The population density was 40.1 inhabitants per square mile (15.5/km²). There were 797 housing units at an average density of 21.0 per square mile (8.1/km²). The ethnic makeup of the town was 96.9% White, 0.4% African American, 0.6% Native American, 0.1% Asian, 0.1% from other races, and 1.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.4% of the population.

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