Doing Business During COVID-19

Nobody anticipated the events of the past several months and we are all going about our lives in a different way.  Our first priority is to protect the health of our volunteers, staff, visitors and community. But we are also committed to continuing to perform our mission to collect, preserve, interpret, and share the history of Bridgton.  At the museum, we will be opening in July with the same schedule as last summer, Wednesday-Saturday, 1-4, following social distancing and cleaning protocols based on the Association of Maine Archives and Museums’ COVID-19  Prevention Recommendations for Archives and Museums.

At Narramissic, we will be open for small group tours by appointment only. Since we will be together for 45 minutes or more in confined spaces, we have instituted the following requirements:

• A maximum of 5 per group, and everyone must be from the same household
• Visitors must stay at least six feet away fromthe docent
• Face coverings in accordance with State of Maine Executive Order #49
• $30 per group, regardless of size

We have had to cancel or postpone until next year almost all of the events we had planned, but we are working to provide on-line content and programs, as well as programs that we can hold outdoors and conform to requirements regarding size and social distancing. And of course, we will adapt our procedures to any changes that may occur in this unprecedented and unpredictable situation.  

We look forward to seeing you and hope that you take advantage of all that we have to offer. Please stay safe and healthy.

The society's headquarters are located in the old firehouse at 5 Gibbs Avenue, which houses the museum and research facility. The society also owns "Narramissic," the Peabody-Fitch Farm in South Bridgton. The property, which consists of 25 acres of fields with spectacular mountain views, remains remarkably isolated from the intrusions of modern life. Visit the house for an experience of unsurpassed authenticity, as you move through the historic space and learn the story of the families that occupied it. The memoirs of Edwin Fitch, who grew up here in the 1840s and ‘50s (published by Bridgton Historical Society as Ninety Years of Living), preserves an intimate view of his family’s life in the house on the eve of the Civil War, and a remarkable number of the furnishings and objects would have been familiar to him.

The house was built in 1797 by William Peabody, and the barn, approximately 40 x 60 feet, was built in the 1830s by his son-in-law George Fitch. Mr. Fitch also added the ells to the house and built the blacksmith shop, which contains a restored functioning forge. Descendants of the Peabody-Fitch families lived here until 1938, when Mrs. Margaret Monroe, from Providence, Rhode Island acquired it for use as a summer home. She passed away in 1986 and bequeathed the property to the Bridgton Historical Society to be used as a museum, a site for demonstrating early American crafts, or similar purposes.  Narramissic is located at 46 Narramissic Road;  which is off Ingalls Road, a mile in from route 107.