Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS August 2013 DEER ISLE-STONINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY - A MUST STOP!
DEER ISLE – There are a number of peo- ple and groups, mainly historical societies, who have done extensive documentation of a subject or subjects they are interested in. One group that has been doing an excellent job documenting their history is the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society on Deer Isle. They are just completing a major cam- paign that has allowed them to build a new exhibit barn and add an addition onto their archives building. Tinker Crouch, President of the Soci-
ety, explained, “Basically we have a 1830s house, furnished with a lot of things that belonged to that family. It was lived in up until the 1940s and then it stood idle for quite awhile. The Society bought it around 1963 as their headquarters and it is a wonderful place for artifacts, island things from that period. Then they put the cement block addition on the back to use as a vault for the archives and also built kind of a barn out back. The barn was later turned into a heated display space and an archives section was added onto it because the old vault was too damp. It was then heated so that it could be open all year.” “About eight years ago, one of our trustees and a long time offi cer, donated the piece of property that adjoins us,” added Tinker. “She knew we had to expand and she also knew when that property became available that we had no money to do it. She purchased the whole piece and she sold the house. She sold that to somebody that she knew would eventually make it into a civic building of some sort and now it is the Island Heritage Trust. The back piece she deeded to us, which gave us space for an exhibit barn, a well, and a leech fi eld.”
The need for exhibit and archival space grew so the Society formed a building and fund raising committee. With input from the staff and people that had worked here, they identifi ed what the needs were. Tinker added, “The fund raising committee decided we weren’t going to do a professional fund- raising campaign, because it was too much of an island project and if you want to do island you don’t have somebody from away
running it. It proved to be absolutely right. We got estimates for the barn and everything else, presented it to the board and I wasn’t too sure they would do it, because this was a huge project, almost $500,000. It was a unanimous decision to go forward.” They had very good advice from a for- mer fund raiser who said ‘You have two ma- jor projects here. You’ve got your expansion on your archives and your barn. Choose the project that is going to be the most exciting to people and that is your barn.’ The barn is post and beam, even though it was a bit more expensive, because it was the proper environment to display the things in and historically it was correct. It took about a year to get the barn up and although they were not ready to put exhibits in it, local groups used it for parties, barn dances, book signings and all kinds of things. Then in the fall of 2011, they began bringing in the artifacts from where they had been stored. Tinker continued, “An Island Institute
fellow, Wes Norton, did all of the research in the winter and then he went out and started pulling it together in a manner that we thought would work. We used box stalls for specifi c industries. Nat Barrows, pub- lisher of Penobscot Bay Press, donated his old presses. We have the cobbler’s shop, machinery from the pants factory and the fi sheries. Upstairs we have an assortment of children’s toys and a kid’s area.” They also have an exhibit of tide mills on the island; the granite industry a church exhibit with their church organ, cloths and an Indian exhibit. The Indian exhibit had been housed in the cement block building and is now more extensive. They have ancient artifacts, but also a case that has things that the settlers brought with them but also the things that the Indians contributed to their households, such as sweet grass baskets. Sam Francis did a map for them that shows the canoe routes down through the Peninsu- la, the portages and the original names when known and what they mean. To the side of the building is a wooden lobster boat, which was built at Billings
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The new exhibit barn and a locally built wooden lobster boat is just a part of what you will see at the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society on Deer Isle.
Diesel & Marine in 1946. She was donated by Maynard Gray, her last owner. For those of us who like maritime his- tory they have an incredible exhibit in the Marine Hall. They have models of sailing and steam vessels, a case of marine instru- ments and lots of photographs and paintings. Tinker added, “For the last two years, this will be the third summer, we have focused on the yachts. We have one of the America’s Cup and the Deer Isle boys.”
Deer Isle also was the home of many yachting captains and crews. Tinker’s fami- ly sailed as captain and crew on a number of the large steam yachts at the turn of the cen- tury. There is a ph otograph of Capt. Charles Small, master of the yacht SAPPHIRE. Tinker said, “He was an Islander, North Deer Isle. He would have been my great uncle. He also sailed on the Fleischmann family’s yacht CAMARGO. My mother gave me a box of pictures and later I interviewed a
couple of guys here on the island that were in the crew. Charley Small, who was captain, and my grandfather, Norman Gray, was also a captain, but he was fi rst mate on her. She added, “My grandparents weren’t
wealthy, but they had nice things. They knew good music, they read good books and they dressed well on Sunday. It never occurred to me, but when you go through the boxes here you can see what those men brought home. They were going in and out of New York, Paris, South America, and brought beautiful things back to these women. Not every day things.”
People who travel sometimes miss the most interesting sights because they are off the beaten path. What is even worse is when someone from that town has not discovered their own local treasure. Numerous histori- cal societies have created fi ne exhibits and have people that can tell great stories about them. Do not miss them!
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