This is a history in captioned photos of our development as a museum village resource. It is a record of our efforts to maintain, adapt, and utilize this group of extant, re-located, and newly constructed structures which serve as a stage for living history and hands-on learning experiences,
Peter Fields’ House, circa 1990. The charred gable end evidences a recent fire as the result of vandalism that destroyed the4 house’s ell in its’ entirety. We are looking for images of the house in its’ entirety. Contact us, if you can help with this effort.The Fields House is lifted, turned, and re-situated on a new poured concrete foundation in 2016. The house likely was built over a dry stack fieldstone foundation. Later the house was set on masonry blocks; these blocks in addition to the fieldstone walled cellar were compromised by frost heave. To stabilize and ultimately save this structure for public use a new foundation was necessitated.The choice to set the building back and to turn it was motivated by the house’s proximity to Fields Pond Road. With the new location of a front door the public can now enter and exit safely,In 2019 we received a Davis Family Foundation grant that assisted us in the first steps of addressing issues with the Curran Barn. This included the stripping of the failing 25 year old asphalt shingle roof, replacing wood roof sheathing where necessary with rough cut lumber and installing architectural grade shingles. Much thanks to Home Depot of Bangor for their assistance with roofing materials.Our newly constructed Whig & Courier Letterpress Office. This began with a relocated shed from Willowbrook Museum 200 miles couth of Orrington, Maine. Our Ice House. This was originally constructed in Newfield, ME with a grant award from Narragansett Number One Foundation.This structure was built in 1935 in Lincolnville Beach. ME. It was the smithy of Tom Flagg who kept workhorses for such tasks as twitching pulp logs out of the woods. The museum was gifted many of the tools he used as a sawyer as well as homemade blacksmithing tools and equipment from generations of Flaggs and Davenports. The smithy includes Flagg’s forge as well as the forge of the late Larry Cook of Meriden. CT.This is how the Letterpress Office appeared at Willowbrook in Newfield. Notice the graduated balustrade and spindles which were long ago removed. Here we see what was the Letterpress Office at Newfield transformed into the new Country Store. The interior space has been increased tpo 900 square feet with the closing in of the cut-in porch and the addition of a new porch. The balustrade and spindles were produced by the Fenderson Pump Co. in Saco, ME.The handicap ramp on the Carpenter’s Shop was built by a local Boy Scout Troop as part of Remy Grindal’s Eagle Scout Project.Our Cider and Grain Mill is an entirely new post and beam construction. It houses an 1870s commercial cider press and apple grinder.The I.H. Fenderson Furniture Maker’s Shop is currently under construction. The first floor will serve as an instruction space and the second floor will house our archives and library.
