19th Century Curran Village, Orrington & Holden, Maine

Rides at 123, 12:30, 1, 1:30, 2 & 3. Admissions: $10

This museum fundraiser is a tag sale, cash and carry. There will be: antique tractors and attachments, antique auto parts, tools, a horse drawn manure spreader, a horse drawn apple orchard sprayer with hit and miss engine, seeders, wagon stuff, cultivators, sleighs, pumps, antique furniture, lighting, building supplies, old power tools, glass and china, desks, architectural, trunks, antique baby crib, and more. Worth a visit. More stuff coming out each day. We do not want donations for this sale; we have plenty. We are refining our collection, reaffirming our 19th century to the 1920s mission theme, and placing greater emphasis on hands-on education rather than static exhibit and quantities of artifacts in storage. All proceeds benefit this nonprofit museum. The sale will be limited to specific areas of the Village. The museum is not open these days due to staffing. Purchases over $20 will receive a carousel ride voucher to redeem at a later date.

We are looking for retired teachers, teachers on summer vacation, history buffs, and the interested to work in a volunteer or part-time, seasonal capacity as costumed interpreters and/or docents at our museum village between May and August. We are a comprehensive presentation of rural New England life between the 1850s to the 1920s. Our emphasis is hands-on experiences with historical artifacts. There is something of interest for everyone. There will be year round opportunities for those available. The first step is calling us at 2307-205-4849 to express your interest.

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world” John Muir

This is our first Earth Day recognition, and we will use this as an opportunity to plant trees that are important to our living history and hands-on programming related to traditional seasonal harvest. These will include maple trees an d apple trees. This is a family event, and the day will include carousel rides, food and demonstrations as well as the following activities:

7. coloring and painting of Earth Day themes

8. trek to the biggest glacial hieratic in the area (Ice Age Holden)—bring your boots,

9. carousel ride ( yes, it’s fixed)

10. apple tree grafting

11. apple tree planting participation

12.sugar maple tree plant participation,

13. blacksmithing and letterpress workshops in progress

14. FOOD : Secret Recipe, circa 1920s, Coney Island Hot Dogs (chilidogs), Wee Bit Farms of Orland grass fed beef, homemade focaccia bread, Grandpa’s Spaghetti Bolognese, Chili, Corn Chowder, Carrot Cake, Banana Bread, & waffles with this year’s Curran maple syrup and ice cream.

All inclusive admissions price: $12 Adults, $6 12 and Under, Toddlers & Infants Free, Don’t Miss It.

Sisters Zoe and Pippa Jamison of Bangor have formerly adopted Pony #3 and Pony #11 that they have named “Porridge”

and “Buckle” respectively.

We will not have our annual ice harvest this year due to thin ice and lack of frost in the ground.

We need very thick ice (usually 20 inches or more thick) to drive our tractor with half tracks pulling a sled to retrieve

ice harvested and transport it to the ice house at the Village above Fields Pond. Concern for the safety of our guest draft

horses is also a factor. We have had lots of snow but it is mud under that in the field where we give rides on a bobsled. The

horses could get injured pulled a heavy sled on soft ground as well as lose a shoe(s).

We will likely do an impromptu ice harvest for the sake of getting some ice for our Ice house so we can keep ice in our refrigerators in the farmhouse and Letterpress Office. We will cut that with our 1919 NOVO ice saw. We will post swhen and what time on our website and Facebook page if you are interest and want to help.

We will have our Maple Syrup & Irish Celebration Event on Saturday & Sunday, March 18 & 19, 10-3. We hope to offer draft horse and sled rides then as we have had snow at this time. We will have food, drink and demonstrations. We’re looking for blacksmiths for a roundup on these dates; let us know if you want to show up and use our blacksmith shops. There will an egg hunt in the snow for the kids and adults too if they like. Prizes awarded for eggs retrieved. And of course, we will be making maple syrup, you can try some, and we will have a choice of foods to taste the syrup with like homemade jonny cakes ( corn meal pancakes) and ice cream. Come see the progress of the museum. Food, drink and horse sled rides covered with our admissions price of $12 per person, under 15: $6.

From all of us at 19th Century Curran Village, we wish you the very best in 2023. Come out and visit us on January 28, 10-3, for our Annual Ice Harvest. Check out our web pages on this website for our winter workshop offerings as well as our Facebook page.

CAROUSEL RIDES on Thanksgiving and Friday, November 25, 11AM, 11:30AM, 12Noon & 1PM. Take a spin on the carousel while the turkey cooks. $5 per ride. Free hot or cold cider served up in the farmhouse kitchen. No food; we don’t want to spoil your appetite.

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