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 are open Tuesday and Thursday 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.

Narramissic is closed for tours until next spring,

Proposed By-Laws Amendments

The Board of Trustees has proposed three changes to the By-Laws, to be voted on by the membership at the annual meeting. The intent of the first two is to simplify and clarify our procedures for holding annual meetings.

Currently, Paragraph four of Article 5 says, in part, “Names of candidates shall be announced ten (10) days prior to the election by written notice.Election shall be held by secret ballot.” The proposed amendment to this article would remove "secret ballot", to be replaced by "voice vote or a show of hands."

The first sentence to the Paragraph entitled “Annual Meeting,” in Article 4 currently states: "The annual meeting of this Society shall be held in the month of October of each year on a day set by the President or the Board of Trustees.” The proposed amendment would add the words “and may be held at such time and place as the President or the Board of Trustees may determine” to this sentence.

The third amendment is intended to provide a measure of legal protection to board members who acting in good faith for the benefit of the society. These are important protections assist in recruiting and retaining the hard-working trustees who take give generously of their time and talent and take on responsibility for the society’s well-being. The proposed amendment adds the following to Article 5: Trustees

“The Bridgton Historical Society (the "Society") shall, to the extent legally permissible, indemnify each person who may serve or who has served at any time as an officer, director or employee of the Society against all expenses and liabilities, including, without limitation, counsel fees, judgments, fines, penalties and settlement payments, reasonably incurred by or imposed upon such person in connection with any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or proceeding in which he or she may become involved by reason of his or her service in such capacity; provided that no indemnification shall be provided for any such person with respect to any matter as to which he or she shall have been finally adjudicated in any proceeding not to have acted in good faith in the reasonable belief that such action was in the best interests of the corporation.

The indemnification provided hereunder shall inure to the benefit of the heirs, executors and administrators of persons entitled to indemnification hereunder. The right of indemnification under this Article shall be in addition to and not exclusive of all other rights to which any person may be entitled.”

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.