Open House at the Parsonsfield Old Town House

  

Old cemeteries can be found along many of our roads in this part of Maine. Parsonsfield, for instance, has nearly 200 of them. Some are the final resting places of the original settlers of the area.

   This past Saturday, the Old Parsonsfield Town House was open to the public and many people took advantage of the rare opportunity to see the inside of the building that once was the center of community life in this town and to find out more about the adjacent Town House Cemetery.

    The open house, sponsored by the Parsonsfield Porter Historical Society, featured an array of exhibits focusing on the once bustling Middle Road Village and who used to live there.  

     Special guest speaker, Jessica Davis (formerly Jessica Felix), spoke about old New England cemeteries and gravestones and how to best preserve them. Her talk was filled with fascinating historical details about burials and how stones and their design changed over time. Even more interesting, she led a walk through the Town House Cemetery and demonstrated the proper method of cleaning stones and a simple (and non-damaging) method for setting a tilted or downed stone upright.  Everyone paid rapt attention. 

     If anyone would like a copy of Jessica’s handout on cemetery restoration and the do’s and don’ts of caring for the stones,, please contact Lyn Sudlow (Lynda.sudlow@gmail.com) with “Gravestones” in the subject line.

            The next meeting of the Parsonsfield Porter Historical Society will take place at the Porter Old Meeting House on (appropriately enough) the Old Meetinghouse Road in Porter.  To find out more about another gem of an historic meetinghouse, come to the open house on Sunday, August 31 between 1 and 3pm.  This building is on the National Register of Historic Places (as is the Parsonsfield Old Meeting House) and well worth a visit. Besides the opportunity to tour the building, pianist Frank Baxter will be playing the Meeting House organ accompanied by vocalist Kathleen Ford.  To find out more, visit the historical society’s blog: localhistorymatters.blogspot.com/ or call Jan @ 625-7019.