19th Century Curran Village, Orrington & Holden, Maine

Harvest Festivals!!!

At Orrington from 10 AM to 3PM, we will have our annual harvest festival with the following for your enjoyment:

Barbecue ( hamburgers & hot dogs, potato salad ($), Jitterbug/Doodlebug Competition Pull ( re-purposed Model A Fords and other 1920s, 30s and 40s homemade tractors go at it pulling a stone sled with increasing weight. This is brought to you by Maine Antique Tractor Association. See the museums collection of homemade tractors that embody Yankee ingenuity. In the farmhouse, we will be making, with your help, butter for bread, serving up “johnny cakes” ( corn-meal pancakes ) and switchel ( a traditional Maine drink of yore). The johnny cakes are the last step in the crop cycle we present with public participation in shelling corn and grinding it with an 1870s portable grist mill powered by gas engine via a leather belt. On the farmhouse porch there will be homemade pickles workshop for tasting and making, if you like. $10 will get you a recipe and a hands-on opportunity to make a Mason jar of pickles; you can walk away with the jar as your reward! There will be apple cider making at the front of the barn. There will be two man saw sawing of firewood with your help; it’s fun to cut a piece but any more become work. Check out our 1923 Ford Model TT truck repair project in progress; looking for some students for this; let us know if you want to participate in the completion of our engine restoration. There will be an old fashioned hay ride, scarecrow drawing for the kids, a hands-on activity in the new Carpenter’s Shop, a sewing demonstration, blacksmithing underway, and pumpkin painting with pumpkin for the kids to pai nt and go home with. Admission: Adults: $12, Kids: $5 or $30 maximum for a family ( includes a pumpkin/gourd, johnny cake and switchel sampler. Proceeds go towards our 501(c)(3) non-profit. For additional information: (207) 205-4849 or (207) 745-4426. See you there!

The ORRINGTON village is OPEN on Wednesday, August 28, 10-3. Come out and see what we’re up to. There is no programming, but you can take a look. Admission is free.

We have our HARVEST FESTIVAL in ORRINGTON on September 21, 10 AM -3 PM. This will include cooking, music, a woodworking project in the TIMBER FRAME WORKSHOP, BLACKSMITHING ( INTRODUCTION TO BLACKSMITHING -A one-day class this day offered from 9AM-4PM; you would need to make a reservation—call 207-205-4849 about details), apple cider making, a JITTERBUG/DOODLEBUG competition pull, pickling, hay rides, MODEL T rides, MODEL T and HIT & MISS ENGINE demonstration ( Ask about our upcoming class in MODEL T repair and future ANTIQUE ENGINE REPAIR classes ), and more…

IN NEWFIELD, Saturday, August 31st, we are open. There is a BEAN SUPPER from 5-7PM. This is our last of the season. The SEPTEMBER 27 BEAN SUPPER is CANCELLED.

In Orrington, we have Old Home Week. Our Giant Yard Sale under the tent is from 8:30-3 PM on Thursday, Friday, & Saturday, July 18, 19, & 20. We have antiques, household items, furniture, equipment, books, toys, and just about everything else.

On Saturday, July 20, at Orrington, we will have Bluegrass music, with Freshly Cut Grass, from 12 Noon on. There will be baked beans, hot dogs and hamburgers as a fundraiser for the museum. Stop by and walk the grounds; see some of our new construction.

In Newfield, we have our Annual Membership Recognition Dinner and the Yankee Brass Band Concert, an 18 piece Civil War era brass band.. The concert is sponsored in part by the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society. This is free to members, but the public can attend the dinner and concert for $20 per person and $35 a couple. The deluxe bean supper, located in the Old Sandwich Shop, is from 4:30-6 PM. Everyone needs to make a reservation, including members, if they are coming.

The museum is open on Friday, July 19th, On July 20 & 21, we will have the Maine 5th Battery, a Civil War artillery group of reenactors with live cannons. There will be other activities going on as well.

We are pleased to report that our $5,000 Matching Donations Challenge by an Anonymous Donor for 19th Century Curran Villages was met on June 1st. Another $5,000 Matching Donations Challenge is underway if we can reach this goal by October 31st. We depend on donations in order to continue to serve more than 1800 school visitors each season and work towards the end of doubling that number by developing our Orrington site for receiving school groups in the future. Please assist us in meeting these goals, make a pledge by contacting us at (207) 745-4426 or writing us at 19th Century Curran Villages, P.O. Box 107, Orrington, Maine 04474.

Saturday, July 27, 2019 Chartered Cyr Bus Round Trip Tour from Bangor (Ramada Inn Park & Ride)-Portland Pick Up -to 19th Century Curran Village at Newfield for a step back in time!

June 21st is the end of our early bird special —$39;

$49 until July 15 (dependent on availability).

Payment gets you a seat on the bus. Call: 207-745-4426

Round Trip from Bangor ( Ramada Inn Park & Ride) to Portland for pick-up and on to 19th Century Curran Village at Newfield for a trip back in time through this museum village set in the late 19th century with two velvet ensconced Victorian homes and more than twenty four other structures filled with artifacts characterizing rural New England life from the 1850s to 1920s and inhabited by costume interpreters. There are blacksmith shops, telegraph rooms, Victorian kitchens, parlors, bedrooms, a cooperage, sugar shack, cider mill, granary, letterpress office, equipment sheds, a carriage house, Model Ts and an assembly line, a schoolhouse with lessons to be learned, ride a fully restored 1894 horse carousel originally from Saco, Maine, catch a flick at our silent movie theater, visit our 1859 candy and gift shop, and much more…

Be transported to a past and special place at 19th Century Curran Village at Newfield, 70 Elm Street, Newfield via comfortable round trip travel experiencing a director’s or self-guided tour through one of Maine largest museums in its 50th season. Ride on the museum’s 1894 Herschell-Armitage horse carousel. A box lunch is available at extra cost or bring your own lunch/picnic. Cooler drinks available on board bus and also at museum’s Country Store.

Trip Date: July 27, 2019 7 am departure from Bangor Ramada Inn Park & Ride with 7 pm return.

Payment gets a seat on this bus. Early Bird Special (payment by June 21), $39. No refunds after June 21. Payment by July 15: $49 (subject to availability) To make payment & secure a seat:

Call 207-745-4426 while seats are still available!

At Jeff’s Catering, East-West industrial Park, 15 Littlefield Rd., Brewer, Maine

Curran Homestead Village’s Annual Gathering & Recognition Lunch North

No Charge for 2019 Members, Donors & Honored Guests. All Others (Public Welcome): $20 Adult & $10 Children

CALL US, IRV @ (207) 205-4849 or BOB @ (207) 205-4849, AND LET US KNOW YOU ARE COMING BY FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 SO WE CAN ORDER YOUR MEAL.

Sponsored in part by Bangor Letter Shop, so there is no charge for members (just pay your 2019 dues in advance with your reservation or at the door), donors and honored guests.

Check in and music begin at 12Noon. Lunch at 12:15. Our Guest Speaker begins at 12:45. Our year in review with highlights from our museum director at 1:15. Wors from Board president at 1:35. Silent auction at 2:00 and a 50/50 Drawing at 2:15.

Our Annual; Gathering & Recognition Lunch South will be held on Saturday, June 22, 2019, 12Noon-3PM at the Old Sandwich Shop, Elm Street, Newfield, Maine.

From Sheep to Woven Wool: Fiber Arts for Kids, Ages 8-13. This February School Break offering is part of our week long learning activities program , Feb. 18-22. Bring a bag lunch, snack provided. With Rhonda Junkins of Echo Valley Farm in Cornish, you meet some lambs and sheep at the museum before processing raw wool into yarn, dyeing it, and weaving it. You will hand card wool, spin wool with your own homemade drop spindle, dye your wool learning about natural dyes, and weave the yarn you make using a lap loom that you assemble. There will be a fifteen minute snack at 10:45 and lunch from 12-12:30. Class takes place in our heated red barn building next to the Newfield Post Office, 70 Elm St., Newfield. Tuition: $45. Includes materials. limited to ten students. Call: 207-205-4849 to make your reservation by February 1. Great holiday present; we can create a gift certificate.

Your Donation For Giving Tuesday, November 27, 2018

 

We have the ambitious goal of expanding and enriching our school field trip offerings at Fields Pond (Orrington/Holden) and Newfield. Your support can move us closer to that goal. We saw more than 1800 school visitors this year, and that means that teachers from more than two dozen schools regularly chose our hands-on experiential programming for their students.

 

Whether it be hand cranking a wooden washing machine and wringing out the water with a hand crank wringer, turning cream into butter, turning the handle of a burr mill and producing cracked corn that you get to feed to chickens, sending a message in Morse code using a telegraph key, using your manners in the little red schoolhouse,  turning a electromagnet to produce a shock or making a diagnosis using X-rays, lifting a 100 pound anvil with a pulley system, using a lever to draw water from a well, pulling the handle of a letterpress to print, simulating the power of a horse on a treadmill, or…. You get the idea. These are some of the many formal and informal experiences that don’t happen in classrooms but  continue to happen for school children at these living history villages with your donation. Helps us to expand and enrich the experiences for our future.

We are setting the bar high with a goal of raising $10,000 on Giving Tuesday, November 27. If we can achieve that in one day imagine what we can do to make memorable learning experiences this and future generation. 

Using Lessons from the Past for Today’s and Tomorrow’s Challenges

Call us: (207) 205-4849, (207) 745-4426 with your pledge!

or

Mail us your donation! Curran Homestead Village, P.O. Box 107, Orrington, Maine 04474 

or

Email us with your contact information, and we’ll get back to you pronto.

NEWFIELD—Sat., February 2, 10-3. Ice Harvest at the Mill Pond: This year we utilize our new ice house storing the ice harvested at this public participation event. Horse drawn bobsled rides: $5. Goodies available at our warming center. Bring the family and help bring in harvested ice. Blacksmithing demonstrations ongoing.On Thurs., Jan. 3, 9-4, & Fri., Feb. 1, 9-4, we will be preparing for the harvest; we can use volunteers. Call: 207-205-4849. Admission free with charges for food and sled rides.

FIELDS POND—Sat., February 9, 10-3. Ice Harvest at Fields Pond.This year we hope to unveil a 1920s Novo Ice saw. This is a gas powered, chain drive gas engine with 42 inch radial saw blade on a sled that was used to cut the grid into the ice that was subsequently sawed through by hand saws. We hope to demonstrate this with public participation and vintage hand tools. Day includes Belgian draft horses pulling 17 foot bobsled for rides, $5. A warm farmhouse kitchen with soup and bread. A family event worth the trip. Admission free with charges for food and sled rides.