History House to Open Soon!

  The Parsonsfield Porter Historical Society begins the 2022 season with their first meeting to be held Saturday, May 21 at 2:00 pm.  A brief meeting and election of officers will be held followed by a program “What Is It?”   Attendees are asked to bring an article, object or picture for the members to identify.  Can you stump the audience?

Open House at History House will be held on Sat. June 4, 1-4 pm.  The new exhibit in the meeting room this year will be “Antique and Vintage Toys” featuring many toys from our own collection.    Visitors will also have the opportunity to tour the whole house.  Another open house will be held in September, and tours can be scheduled by appointment.  Have you ever been to History House?

History House is the home of the Parsonsfield Porter Historical Society.  It was a village house with an attached barn that was built in 1885 for Preston J. Stanley, father of our founder and first president, Ina Stanley Emery.  In 1955 the Society purchased it and established a small museum in which to display and store articles and memorabilia connected to the history of Porter, Parsonsfield and South Hiram and with a room for meetings.  It was opened for the Porter Sesquicentennial in 1957.  Extensive renovations were begun in 2000 and in 2006 it was expanded to add a library, office and additional storage space.   Work is ongoing to improve and maintain the property.  Some new exhibits are put up every year.

Over the next few months our blog post will give you a glimpse of what you will see on a History House Tour.  

The first room in the main house is the kitchen.  Imagine being transported back in time about 100 years to your great or great, great grandmother’s kitchen.  Our kitchen is representative of a kitchen from the 1920’s or 1930’s with even a few things from the 1940’s and 50’s.  You will see items such as a glass churn, a hand crank coffee grinder, a wash board for scrubbing clothes, an old-fashioned iron and a candle mold, dishes and many more kitchen items. 

The sink is an early white porcelain one with an attached drain board and running water.  There is an Empress Atlantic Cook Stove that burns wood manufactured by Portland Stove Co., in the 1920’s – 40’s. We also have a 1927 General Electric Monitor Top refrigerator.  The other furnishings are typical of an early kitchen that evolved over the passage of time just as they would have in real life.

We look forward to seeing you in the coming months.

Remember:

Local

History

Matters!

The Dating of Easter

 As spring approaches each year, we eagerly await the signs of nature’s reawakening, particularly those of us living in northern climes.   With this, our thoughts perennially turn to the question - When is Easter this year?  The “when” is easily answered – Easter is the first Sunday after or on the Paschal Full Moon, the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  Though the equinox’s exact date can vary each year, the church always recognizes the vernal equinox as March 21, meaning Easter can occur any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.  

But why does the date of Easter vary from year to year.  Christians celebrate Easter Sunday as the day when Mary discovered the empty tomb of Jesus following his resurrection. In fact, many churches hold sunrise services believing Mary made her discovery at daybreak.  Early Christians wanted Easter to coincide with Passover because Christ’s death and resurrection are believed to have taken place during Passover.  Passover’s dates are pegged to the Hebrew calendar, based on the lunar cycle, where months are measured by how long it takes the moon to go from new to full and back to new. That cycle takes about 29½ days, making a lunar year about 12 days shorter than the solar year (tracked by the calendar on your wall). 

 

Passover’s seven-day observance commemorates the liberation of Jews from slavery in Egypt, as told in the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. When God unleashed the 10th plague, slaying the first-born of each Egyptian family, he “passed over” homes of the Jews.  Passover starts in the middle of the month of Nisan, when the moon is full, typically falling in March or April of the Gregorian (modern) calendar.  

This year on Friday evening, April 15th, members of the Jewish faith will begin to observe Passover. Two days later, on April 17th, Christians will celebrate Easter. The observances make for one of the holiest times of the year for both faiths though they commemorate unrelated events.