CALL: 207-745-4426
Dear Teacher,
Please call to arrange a customized field trip for your students: (207) 745-4426. We’re open for school field trips from Monday through Friday at 9AM. Pick a date. Usually school groups arrange a visit from 9 or 10AM until 1 or 2PM. I’ll create a schedule for your group that will include up to 6 learning stations, 5 minutes of travel to each station, lunch break, and a ride on our 1894 horse carousel. The museum is still being developed but these are the choices of learning stations for this season:
#1 Red Schoolhouse (20-25 minutes). This is a replica of an 1839 one room schoolhouse from Parsonsfield, ME. Learn through experiencing the dynamics of school in the 1890s under the instruction of role playing “school marm”, Students will have hands-on experience with slate boards and soapstone pencils.
#2 Cider Press (20-25 minutes): Students will learn about apples in Maine, how apple cider was made, using a grind and press method. They can get hands-on by adding apples to the grinder, turning the crank for the grinder and press, and by enjoying the fruits of their labor!
#3 Grain Mill (20-25 minutes): Students will experience manufactured machines from the 1880s/1890s that used animal power including dog treadmills, horse treadmills, hand crank corn shellers and burr mills for making feed. “Johnny cracked corn…” as will your students for the sake of feeding the chickens and goats.
#4 Ford Model T Assembly Line (20-25 minutes): 1/2 scale representations of Model Ts in the form of jigsaw puzzles are put together with nuts and bolts using real tools from the Model T’s toolbox. Students are lectured on teamwork and strategic planning in order to complete their Model Ts in competition with other groups while the stopwatch ticks. The record is four minutes and 16 seconds; see if you can beat this. Ford’s assembly line was unveiled in 1913. It reduced several day’s work into 24 hours to complete a car.
#5 Blacksmith Shop (20-25 minutes): The blacksmith was at one time the most important tradesman in the rural village. From shoeing horses, creating wagons, and repairing equipment the blacksmith did many things with metal but probably didn’t make knives and swords in 19th century Maine.
#6 Simple Machines (20-25 minutes): Experience a screw, ramp, pulleys and lever first hand. Students will be amazed to lift a two hundred pound anvil with two fingers using a chain fall. They will drill holes, lift with a pulley and block and tackle as well as experience changing a wagon wheel using a wagon jack (a lever).
#7 Letterpress Office (20-25 minutes). Visit the Whig & Courier Letterpress Office where we have type and printing presses from the Ellsworth American and the Whig & Courier (precursor to the Bangor Daily News) from the 1870s-1890s. Each student with hand feed and foot treadle power our 1892 Golding Pearl printing press producing a souvenir book marker. Students will experience typewriters and other office machinery while also writing using a pen, nib and bottle ink as students like themselves did in the past.
#8 Ride our 1894 Horse Carousel from 1894. (10 minutes per group of riders; up to 20 riders in a group.) This was set up and taken down at public gatherings in Maine between 1896-1922. You get to ride it and learn something about the steam engine that runs it, the iconography that embellishes it, and the story of how it came to Orrington.
#9 Live Steam and Gas Power. See a demonstration of a wood burning tractor powered by an 1872 steam engine. Hear its’ whistle blow. See a demonstration of an early gas engine (1919) powering a piece of machinery.
#10 The Bees Knees. (15-20 minutes) Learn about the life cycle, habits, and productivity of honey bees from a professional Bee Keeper!
#11 Wood Splitting. (20-25 minutes) Students will see how people had to produce wood for their homes and farms. From chopping with an axe, to a two-person hand saw, to a powered wood chipper. Students can create their own souvenir (a tree round) by working with another student to use a two-person hand saw.
#12 Wood Working. (20-25 minutes) Students can learn how buildings were built using mortar and tenon joints, wood pegs, etc. They can try their hands at wood drills and wood planers to understand the labor involved.
Any of the above activities can be tailored to the age-range of your students. If they are too young to be hands-on, we’ll make the mini-lessons as interactive and fun as possible.
Choose up to six of the above for your visit and include a Carousel Ride for a seventh activity. We will email you a copy of the schedule for your group(s). Copies of this schedule will be shared with adults accompanying groups. Ideally groups should be 15 students or less. A class of 24 students might be expected to be broken up into two groups of twelve for the optimal experience of the students.
Students may also visit our Country Store if it’s open. Candy and snacks as well as souvenirs are available to purchasers. Staff role play “clerks” of the past and will count back your change into your hand; they may test your arithmetic in the process. No items are over $20 and most are a dollar or less. Proceeds benefit the museum.
We are a rain or shine destination, so the program will not be cancelled. Please dress accordingly. There are picnic tables housed under roofs for lunch.
Admission: $15 per student. Teachers are free. One adult per 15 students. Additional adults pay $15. Teachers or designated persons from your school are expected to provide a total headcount of adults, teachers, and students and collect admission from all accompanying adults upon arrival or before. We expect that admissions will be submitted to the director before beginning your tour.
Please reserve the date of your school field trip visit by paying half or the total amount in advance by check or credit card. The remainder is anticipated upon arrival for your field trip. No refunds will be granted within 30 days of your visit, as our staff is composed of volunteers and paid employees who have been scheduled for your visit.
Thank you for your interest.
We look forward to your call: (207) 745-4426 as soon as possible.
Scroll down for more information about reservations for a school field trip and details about our school field trip program.
A field trip to 19th Century Curran Village is a great way for students of all ages to explore 19th Century Maine, New England and American history, especially our evolving science and technology during that period. Our goal is to use the lessons of the past for the challenges of the present and future.
Our museum village is located at 372 Fields Pond Road, Orrington, Maine, outside of Brewer and Bangor, Maine.
We’ve created a museum village on our property that spans both the townships of Orrington and Holden, In 2020-2022, the museum relocated 14 structures from the former museum 19th Century Willowbrook Village in Newfield, Maine which is approximately 190 miles from the Orrington and Holden location.
We provide self guided tours for student groups at our museum village campus of twenty five structures in the Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. Certainly your utilization of the site and our programming will insure its’ longevity.
19th Century Curran Village at Newfield offers a multi-station interactive program that addresses Maine Learning Standards and the New Hampshire Curriculum Framework.
Some of our exhibits are inspired by current Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning objectives.
On site programs are based on grade appropriate themes in a “learning station” format. Each visit includes programming that is approximately 3 1/2 hours in length and includes time for lunch at one of our outdoor or roofed picnic areas and a stop at the Country Store. We consider the store an integral part of a student’s experience at our village; the store includes many inexpensive souvenirs and snacks to purchase as well as many museum artifacts in situ to see. Try a game of checkers, which was a popular entertainment and setting for small town conversation.
Make your reservations for Your field trip now!
How do you do that? Contact our museum director at (207) 745-4426, or our Email: curranhomestead2025@gmail.com
In your request for a school field trip to Curran Homestead Village at Newfield, you should provide the following information:
- Name of teachers, school, address, phone number & email
- Identify at least 2 requested dates. We’re only open on weekdays for school field trip during this time frame.
- Estimated arrival and departure time. Usually, schools arrive between 9-10 AM and depart between 1-2 PM but we will work with you on this. We have a staff of both paid and volunteer staff so they need to be informed in advance when your group is coming. We like to have reservations established at least a month in advance of your visit.
- Cost. We are a nonprofit that is dependent on any revenues we can garner from donations, grants and our programs so we have to charge for your visit. It is $15 dollars per child. We require a teacher/adult chaperone for every 15 students; this adult chaperone is free. All other accompanying adults other than required teachers and ed tech support and/ or chaperones are $15 dollars each.
- Once you have reserved your date for a school field trip we will mail or email an invoice. We prefer that you pay at least half your group’s admission fee in advance, and that the remainder of that fee be paid in full when you arrive with your school group. Admission fees from additional parents accompanying your field trip need to be collected by the teacher(s) and paid to our director when you arrive at the museum.
- If you’re interested, we can send you our newsletters so that you may follow the progress of the museum, participate in additional programming, learn about our collections, and our special events. We will have a sign up sheet when you arrive at the museum or you may contact us at your leisure.
- Once we have worked with you via email or phone to tailor make your visit to your needs, we’ll send you a program schedule for your groups as well as an invoice for payment.
