Author: curranhomestead

Our last event of the season was our Harvest Event on the weekend of October 8 & 9, 2022. Now that we are into the month of November we will be winterizing our horse carousel so rides will not be available until the month of May 2023 when we we-open the museum village. By the end of December our 2023 season calendar will be available on this website as well as in our in-print newsletter which you can request at: thecurranhomestead@gmail.com. We will continue to schedule workshops for adults and kids throughout late fall and the winter. There will be other ongoing activities at the museum which you can participate in. If interested, you can consult our webpages on this website or our Facebook page: “19th Century Curran Village” for the latest news about the museum. Be sure to check out our photo album and other webpages on this website, as we have been updating them to document the progress of our recent construction efforts and evolving programming offerings. Thank you for your interest!

Painting in October and November?

Join our Cider Making Co-Op. Pics from our October 8 & 9, 2022 Harvest Event

Summer S.T.E.A.M. History Camp, 2022

We will have our Annual Ice Harvest on Saturday, January 28, 2023, 10AM-3PM.

Because the ice harvest is always weather dependent, please check this website or our Facebook page: 19th Century Curran Village for updates.

Scheduled workshops can be found on our “Kids Workshops” and “Adult Workshops” pages as well as on our Facebook “Events”.

This last event of the season includes pumpkin painting, cider making, Model T rides, rides on our 1894 horse carousel,

engine demos, live steam with our steam traction engine, ongoing foot treadle sewing machine sewing demo, blacksmithing ( Pay to register, call: 207-205-4849, for a one day railroad spike knife making workshop on Saturday or Sunday from 9AM-4PM ), apple pie, apple strudel, stew and pork and beans, Wee Bit Farms of Orland sausages & burgers, and cider. See our progress in creating a museum village.

Hot Link: Fall 2022 Newsletter

This past July 18-22 , 19th Century Curran Village hosted its’ first week-long summer S.T.E.A.M. history camp. Our program included the following:

• Alexander Calder-esque Wire Figure Circus Sculpture with artist Ann Thompson, Biddeford, ME
• Foot Treadle Sewing Machine with Susan Howard (Project: Cinch Bag Made with Fat Quarters)
• Cyanotypes with artifacts and found objects with Robert Schmick & Doug Dolan
• Archaeological Dig
• Fiber Arts: Make a Lap Loom, Weave, Spin Wool with a Drop Spindle
• Native American Program with Ken Hamilton: Make wampum, storytelling, song and dance
• Woodworking: Make a Dowel Handle Toolbox with Doug Dolan & Weldon Long
• Woodworking: Make a Coat Rack Using a Shaving Horse, Draw Knife, Spoke Shave and Saw with Doug Dolan
• Ford Model T Rides
• Rides on our 1894 Armitage-Herschell Horse Carousel
• Letterpress Printing with Mark Matteau of the Dunstan Press, Scarborough, ME
• Pickle Making with Cheryl & Weldon Long
• Metal Casting with Peter Grant, Odd Duck Foundry, Orrington, ME
• Blacksmithing with Robert Schmick

Saturday, January 29, 2022, 9-4, Blacksmith For a Day Workshop. Learn the basics of metal forging in this beginner’s or refresher for the initiated’s workshop. Safety, materials, coal fired forging or propane forging, methods and technique are addressed in our museum blacksmith shop under instruction from our longtime blacksmith Dwight King. Make “J” hooks and mount them to a shaped metal plate with hand forged rivets to complete a coat rack. Cost: $75. Bring a 2.5 lb. hammer (pein type or drilling/machinist’s), natural fiber clothing and outerwear, leather footwear, safety glasses/goggles, a mask, and work gloves (optional). Students must be 15 years of age or older. Get $25 off on the next blacksmithing class you take with us like our Feb. 12 & 13, 9-4 Make a Knife Workshop. Call now to register: (207) 205-4849.

On behalf of our Board of Directors and our Museum Director we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! We have had a long separation from you and you from us, but we hope you are looking forward to 19th Century Curran Village’s re-opening in 2022. We wish you good health and a pleasant holiday as we all give thanks for our many blessings. We have been and continue to be busy creating a learning resource for you and your family this year. 19th Century Curran Village has grown exponentially in the last two years; we need your continued help to assist us in this growth. Please donate what you can for this 2021 fiscal year to assist us in not only meeting the goal of opening our doors in the spring but securing a future of sharing our many learning opportunities with you and your family. We tentatively hope to have a public event, our Annual Ice Harvest on Fields Pond, on January 29 from 9AM-3PM; there will be hands-on activity with antique tools, Belgian draft horses pulling our bobsled for rides in the Village, food to eat, and a warm place with social distancing practised as well as some interesting surprises from our collections. Our tentative plan is to have our 1894 horse carousel on exhibit; getting a ride on the carousel will have to wait until next year as electrical installation and excavation for underground piping for our air compressor that powers the carousel are on temporarily on hold. We hope to see you at the Ice Harvest when we can share the progress of 19th Century Curran Village at 372 Fields Pond Road, Orrington, Maine.

This summer (2021) for had the good fortune of receiving two significant donations of archival materials. John Bragg and Jonathan Eames of the one time family owned N.H. Bragg & Son Company, founded in Bangor, Maine in 1853, donated a number of late 19th century ephemera as well as some catalogs from the retailer in heavy equipment, tools, and mechanica supplies. We hope to receive a larger donation of archival materials in the future. The other donation came from Tracy Bigney and Rick Bronson. This is the lifetime circus collection of their father Richard B. Bronson, Sr. who passed away in 2004. The boxed collection had been in storage for more than a decade.

This significant circus collection found us, as it occurred to the donors that the relocation of our carousel building and 1894 Herschell-Armitage horse carousel might be a fitting match to their father’s collection. With the re-assembly and restoration of the octogonal, three story structure that has housed the restored horse carousel since 1990, we put in the effort of sheathing the interior walls with tongue and groove bead board (wainscotting) and putting a coat of white paint. The intention has been for some time to not only offer all visitors in the near future a ride on the carousel but to use the space as a gallery to exhibit archival and art long hidden in filing cabinets and back rooms vitually unknown to most. The carousel itself came with a donation of many other artifacts once belonging to Ivory Fenderson, its original owner. This included just about every document, receipt, photographs, and other material culture saved by the Fenderson family since the carousel was retired to a barn on their farm in Saco. Maine a hundred years ago this coming year!