The Freeport Historical Society is again offering Summer Tours of the Historic Pettengill Farmhouse and grounds as a way for the public to learn more about this remarkable homestead. These tours offer a rare opportunity to view and learn about the house, which is generally open only once a year, on Pettengill Farm Day. Join a docent as they describe the history of the farm and saltbox, built about 1800 and sustained over generations without the modern conveniences of central heating, running water, or electricity. The house resides on 140 acres that supported a saltwater farm and dairy, most recently by Mildred Pettengill and her brother Frank.
Participants can sign-up for a 90 min tour of the farm and house, which includes a viewing of the rare sgraffiti wall etchings of ships and marine life. The scheduled tours are as follows:
Wed June 26 at 1:00 PM
Thurs July 18 at 9:00 AM
Tues Aug 13 at 5:00 PM
Fri Aug 23 at 9:15 AM
Fri Sept 13 at 11:00 AM
Cost is $12 per person for the general public and $10 for FHS members.
Details:
Participants must register at least 24 hours in advance since at least 4 people (maximum 10) are required for the tour to occur. (Go to freeporthistoricalsociety.org or call 865-3170.) If the tour needs to be rescheduled due to rain (the event will feature a walk around the grounds) or because of too few participants, those signed up will be rescheduled to another date or their money refunded.
Attendees meet at the gate entrance at the end of Pettengill Road, and we will carpool to the site. Spontaneous participants are welcome to join in at the start location, but they should first confirm that the tour is happening. Please wear appropriate footwear for walking on uneven surfaces and bring along bug spray. If walking is difficult, participants can choose to remain near or in the house.
Tours are also available on request with a minimum of 4 participants. Contact Jesse at info@freeporthistoricalsociety.com or 865-3170 to schedule a time.
Freeport Historical Society Events Canceled Until Further Notice
Due to risk posed by the coronavirus, FHS has opted to postpone upcoming events until further notice. This means that we will not be hosting:
The History of Plants on March 26th
FHS 2020 Annual Meeting on April 4th
Continual Bloom in the Perennial Garden on April 7th
We are optimistic about re-scheduling these wonderful events in the near future, and we wish all of our members and friends safety and wellness during this difficult time.
CANCELED 2020 Annual Meeting with Honored Speaker Colin Woodard
Saturday, April 4th at 4:00 pm
Freeport Community Services, 53 Depot Street
Honored Speaker: Colin Woodard
Please join us for a brief business meeting to celebrate FHS, elect trustees, and present annual awards.
The meeting will be followed by “200 Years as a State, 170 as a Colony: The forces that shaped Maine’s Past, Present and Future,” a talk from Maine author and journalist Colin Woodard.
Refreshments will be served before the meeting.
Woodard tells the backstory of Maine, a harrowing and little understood saga of war and betrayal, of clashing empires and ethnic cleansing, of an intra-English civil war and a 170 year colonial occupation by Massachusetts of what had been a separate province. These events shaped Mainers as a people and explain some of the culture’s most impressive virtues and most frustrating faults, as well as the still fraught relationship between this land’s real natives and the rest of us whose families came “from away” at some point in the past four hundred years.
Colin Woodard is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is currently a contributing editor at Politico and State & National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, where he won a 2012 George Polk Award, was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, and was named 2014 Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press Association. A Maine native and a longtime foreign correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Higher Education and The San Francisco Chronicle, he has reported from more than fifty foreign countries and seven continents, and lived for more than four years in Eastern Europe. He is the author of six books: Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood (Viking, 2020) American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good (Viking, 2016) American Nations: A History of The Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America (Viking, 2011), The Republic of Pirates: Being The True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down (Harcourt, 2007), the New England bestseller The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier (Viking, 2004), a cultural and environmental history of coastal Maine, and Ocean’s End: Travels Through Endangered Seas (Basic Books, 2000), a narrative non-fiction account of the deterioration of the world’s oceans. A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago, he lives in Midcoast Maine. www.colinwoodard.com
Gordon Chibroski / Staff Photographer: Friday, February 15, 2013. Portrait of Colin Woodard at is desk at the Portland Press Herald.
The History of Plants
Thursday, March 26th
7-8:30 PM
45 Main St., Harrington House
$5 suggested donation
Join us for a lecture with historian June O’Donal. O’Donal is a retired museum educator whose passion for history has led her to author The Fryeburg Chronicles, a series of family-friendly historic novels about her hometown of Fryeburg, Maine, and has led to her research of plant history. How do plants influence our culture? June will have her books for sale. Refreshments provided at 6:30.
CANCELED Continual Bloom in the Perennial Garden
Tuesday, April 7th from 4:00 – 5:00 PM
Harrington House, 45 Main St.
Suggested donation: $5
Join the FHS Garden Committee in welcoming Bill Kennie, Nursery Manager at Allen, Sterling & Lothrup. Come and hear Bill explain how to have “Continual Bloom in the Perennial Garden.” Bill has many years of experience as a landscaper and designer.
The Mast Landing: Exhibit Extended!
The Mast Landing: Industry, Commerce, and Its People, 1720s-1920
Co-Curated by Holly Hurd and David Coffin
Now open through January 31, 2020!
Tues- Fri 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Admission is $3 per person, 12 and under free
This exhibit focuses on Mast Landing, the area where large pine logs destined to become ship masts were hauled and loaded into the Harraseeket River during the 18th century. Abner and David Dennison moved to town in 1757 and soon after built a sawmill and vessel at the landing. This industrial activity marked the beginning of growth toward a village that would thrive, prosper, and decline as new modes of transportation changed the face of commerce. David Coffin is co-curating the exhibit, which will include years of work on the historic Mast Landing village as well as new information about the people who lived and worked there.
Dennison’s Falls Mill Site Dedication
Saturday, October 19th at 10:00 am
Mast Landing Audobon Sanctuary
Join the Freeport Historical Society in the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the history of Dennison’s Falls at the Mast Landing Audubon Sanctuary.
This event will recognize the years of work that local history advocate David Coffin and FHS staff and volunteers have put into researching and sharing the history of Mast Landing and clearing the mill site at Dennison’s Falls.
Contact the Freeport Historical Society at
(207) 865-3170 with any questions.
The Ghosts of Freeport’s Past
October 24th, 25th, and 26th at 6:15 and 7:00 pm
Mast Landing Cemetery,
Upper Mast Landing Road, Freeport
In the event of hard rain, tours will move to the First Parish Church and one combined show will occur at 7:00.
October 27th at 3:00 pm
First Parish Church
40 Main Street, Freeport
For the past 5 years, Freeport Historical Society has partnered with Freeport Players to bring you a series of Halloween-inspired, costumed tours of local cemeteries. This year, we will tell the stories of the ghosts of the historic Mast Landing Cemetery. Join us for a ghostly fall performance and sweet treats from Wilbur’s of Maine. Please note, this event is historical, not scary, and is appropriate for school-aged children.
We strongly recommend you purchase tickets in advance as we can accommodate only a limited number of participants in each tour.
You can purchase tickets online here for no extra service fee.
Adult tickets are $10 for members of the Freeport Historical Society and $12 for non-members. Kids 12 and under pay $5. We have a special 4+ family rate this year of $25 for member or non-members.
*Mast Landing Cemetery is on a steep incline. If you have difficulty navigating uneven terrain, please consider attending our performance at First Parish Church*
A Photographic Tour of Historic South Freeport
Community Hall at the South Freeport Church
Wednesday, October 16th at 6:30
Suggested donation: $5
Join FHS Executive Director Jim Cram for a photographic tour of South Freeport!
The origins of this presentation came from a box of photographs and oversize negatives that came from Jim’s grandmother’s attic.
Neva Star Soule was the daughter of Emily Soule and Josiah Soule. Born in 1875, Neva grew up in South Freeport. She married Fred Chase from North Yarmouth and they built a new house on Cumberland Foreside in 1900. Jim grew up in that house.
In that box were over 200 images and portraits, many of South Freeport Village taken from 1904 into the teens. These images are combined with others from the collection of the Freeport Historical Society to create a presentation which includes public buildings, including the church and two schools, the coming of the trolley system, Casco Castle, and background information of a few houses and the old post office. Many early images of the Harraseeket and the waterfront are included.
44th Annual Pettengill Farm Day
Pettengill Farm, 31 Pettengill Road
Sunday, October 6th from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Tickets will be sold at the door: $5 for adults, $2 for children
Join us at for a day of family fun at our pristine 140-acre salt water farm! There is always a lot to see and do on this 200+ year old farmstead as we celebrate rural life of the 1800s.
We will have activities including horse-drawn wagon rides, corn husk dolls, pumpkin painting, games, beeswax candle crafting, lunch, and fresh apple cider pressing. We will also have historic demonstrations including cooking, spinning yarn, and writing with quill pens. The original farmhouse will be open and guided tours will be available.
An Evening with the Collections
Harrington House, 45 Main Street
Tuesday, September 10th at 7:00 PM
Freeport Historical Society announces our 2nd Annual Evening with the Collections. Hosted by the Collections Committee.
Please RSVP to info@freeporthistoricalsociety.org
*Hors d’oeuvres & wine with a special showing and discussion of our latest, most spectacular collections!*
If you are interested in joining our Friends group, please contact Holly Hurd at library@freeporthistoricalsociety.org
