Welcome to the new official website of The Curran Homestead Living History Farm and Museum in Orrington, Maine. We are a turn-of-the-20th century farmstead, with vegetable gardens, a functioning blacksmith shop, a growing collection of domestic and agricultural material culture from rural Maine farms, seasonal events, an oral history archive, and over 30 acres of fields and woodlands to explore. We are situated opposite a large fresh-water pond with accessibility to additional wooded trails. 

Our annual parking fundraiser at the 2010 American Folk Festival (August 27-29) was an immense success. Much thanks to our volunteers that withstood record summer heat to direct the parking at the Penobscot Plaza on Washington Street for the benefit of The Curran Homestead.  

Recent Finds ( Can you provide any information about these photographs related to the Currans and their farm in Orrington, Maine? )

          

For those interested in learning about our blacksmithing programs (Fall and Winter) visit the web pages entitled "Blacksmithing."

Our recent three-day weekend, Open Farm Day and a two day yard sale on July 23-25 was a great success.


Open Forge Tuesdays
We are still offering Tuesday open forge time. You will need to contact us, if you are interested. Blacksmith Adriaan Gerber will be on hand from 5-8PM to assist and oversee your progress. The cost will be $5 per hour for those who have completed a blacksmithing course at our smithy or are members of the organization. Those interested can contact us for membership and subsequent access to our blacksmithing facility, or simply stop by at our next event. For the purpose of open forge times, there will be a supply of metal on site for sale. Individuals may bring their own metal or projects to work on. Please give Adriaan a call (207-667-1307), if you plan on being at the forge on a Tuesday.

We are also developing a metalcasting program, and we have had three sandcasting workshops using aluminum. We are developing a similar workshop for the future involving the casting of iron. Contact us if you are interested in learning to cast small objects in aluminum, brass or cast iron. Some of our members have cast parts for machinery, knives (after forging their own blades), and ornamental objects with much success under the guidance of Peter Grant, a local hobbyist who is self-taught and has come forward to share his knowledge and acquired skill with us. Contact us if you are interested in attending one of these workshops in the future.

Activity in the Month of August, 2010:
     

With the addition of a lean-to roof to our smithy, we will be acquiring more riveter's forges that are light weight for easy set-up and take-down during our warm weather blacksmithing activity outdoors. The hole for the steel-reinforced concrete pad for a brick double aperture, side draft forge has been dug, and we will be preparing for the concrete pour and the eventual brick construction. This has been made possible through volunteers. Wyatt Picard, a local stonemason, has lent his expertise and will be assisting us in the construction. We had another metalcasting workshop with Peter Grant, and this involved casting a brass sundial. In the week to come we will cast our first cast iron firepot from a pattern painstakingly created by Peter. After an exhaustive search, we have finally acquired a ice harvesting plow to lend to the greater historical accuracy of our annual ice harvest on Fields Pond. This example is missing its original steam bent oak handles; we will be replacing them. In addition to the ice plow, we have recently acquired a large double door farmer's ice box. This originally comes from a farmhouse on Essex Street in old Bangor. 


 On June 27, we went to the  Antique Tractor Show and Jitterbug Pull at the Farmington Fairgrounds. We have a collection of jitterbugs at The Curran Homestead, and it is our intention to get them in working order for the purpose of demonstration. This trip to Farmington was a reconnaissance mission of sorts. Check out the photos in our "image gallery" from this event paying particular attention to our favorite, a 1922 Buick jitterbug.