Vassalboro's story, told through what people kept.

A Glenwood range and a wringer washer share the room with a chrome dinette set, a high chair pulled up to the table, and a bowl of fruit under a printed cloth. The shelves hold the brands people actually bought.

The display traces home life from older to newer: cooking, entertainment, and chores. Among the pieces is a 1940s television set that a former Vassalboro resident recognised on a visit as the one her family gathered around.

The exhibit tells ten thousand years of Native American life at the outlet of China Lake, through artifacts collected at the Cates Farm site (38.10). The site was a seasonal fishing place near the mouth of China Lake’s Outlet Stream.

Over a hundred stone tools, projectile points, adzes and pecked stone artefacts sit alongside a full-scale diorama of a father and son fishing for alewives at the stream. Radiocarbon dating places some finds at more than 5,000 years old. The exhibit was designed by Donald J. Bassett, with clothing details hand-fashioned by Director Stewart Corson and leggings loaned by Director Simone Antworth.

Made possible by a grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, marking the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Sixty-plus quilts (hand-pieced, appliquéd, embroidered) sit alongside the everyday furnishings that filled Vassalboro bedrooms across generations. Some were made for daily use, some stitched for beauty, all made by hand.

See also our current community project: the Vassalboro Community Quilt, made from individual blocks decorated by residents, on display at Heritage Village during Vassalboro Days.

Cast iron, tin ware, wooden butter moulds, hand-cranked implements, and the small labour-saving inventions that changed how families fed themselves. A companion to the Homestead Life display; here the tools take center stage.

Everyday items from Vassalboro's servicemen and women, from the Civil War through to modern service. Companion to our Veterans memorial archive.

Vassalboro's economy was built on water power: the woolen mill at North Vassalboro, the smaller mills along the streams, and the trades that grew up around them. This display honors the makers.

Formal china, silver settings, parlor organs, and the parlor furniture families brought out for guests. Two connected rooms that show what a Vassalboro household looked like at its most polished.

Born in Berwick, John Damon Lang built the woolen mill at North Vassalboro that anchored the town's economy for generations. He was also a national figure: a leader in the Society of Friends, appointed by the President of the United States in 1869 as an Indian Peace Commissioner, and an influential voice in the 1850 tariff debates in Washington.

This exhibit gathers documents, photographs, and mill-era artifacts to tell the story of a man whose reach extended far beyond Vassalboro, while never leaving it behind.