Penobscot Historical Society |
78 ME-199, Penobscot, Maine (207) 326-0551 Website
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Driving through it for a couple years, one thing I noticed about the Coastal town of Penobscot was how “empty” it was. This weird vibe of it once being a large bustling hub of commerce and activity, that was now empty fields and rotting buildings. Don’t get me wrong, it looks like a fine town. Nice school, town office, a few remaining businesses (see the individual reviews), but wouldn’t be great to go back in time when Penobscot was a major hub of canning or a really major player in brick manufacturing. Well, in a way you can… The Penobscot Historical Society maintains four buildings and is a treasure trove of stories, information and artifacts from the “days gone by”. I gave them 4 stars and here’s some reasons why:
The four historical buildings themselves; a farmhouse, a barn, a one-room schoolhouse and a general store. All filled with items brimming with history and stories. Being inside one can just imagine what life was like back then. The hardships, the challenges, the joys, the peacefulness of a simpler world.
The General store was the 1st thing that caught my attention and got me digging into PHS, I thought it was a real store, just never open or recently closed. (Some stores in Maine STILL look like that!) Of course, the Internet revealed it was part of the Historical society. Duh. What I liked the most from inside: The old post office, the tools, the checkerboard by the pot belly stove.
In the barn and shed is bunch of equipment, buggies, an old washing machine (Which I remember having a similar one growing up at our camp where we had no power) and something called a “Bean Thrasher”, which was made of wood, had a hand crank and separated the beans from everything else.
In the cellar of the farmhouse was basically a museum of things that didn’t really fit in the other buildings; military stuff, toys, clothes...etc
In the cellar of the farmhouse was basically a museum of things that didn’t really fit in the other buildings; military stuff, toys, clothes...etc
The schoolhouse ended up being my favorite building, one-room, with different types of desks from many eras, pictures of presidents on the walls, a real chalkboard, an alphabet of cursive writing. You can almost see a class-full of ghosts sitting at the desks, eager to learn and grow-up.
There is so much more to say about places like this, but these reviews should only be so long. I think one of the curators summed it up best: “Young people today don’t care about any of this, they are just not interested. But you know, I didn’t, until recently.”
Maybe to have an appreciation for the “good ole days”, you have to put some of your own history behind you and get tuned into some nostalgic feelings of our how society used to be. Those are my thoughts. If you like, love or are slightly curious about Maine History, visit the Penobscot Historical Society. You’ll be glad you did.
Maybe to have an appreciation for the “good ole days”, you have to put some of your own history behind you and get tuned into some nostalgic feelings of our how society used to be. Those are my thoughts. If you like, love or are slightly curious about Maine History, visit the Penobscot Historical Society. You’ll be glad you did.