BREWER – You won’t find Springheirville on a map, but come next month the miniature Christmas village beloved by people for miles around will be back at the Brewer Historical Society for four special viewings.

The public is welcome to drop by the Brewer Historical Society’s Clewley Museum at 199 Wilson St. at these times:

. 4-7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 6.

. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9.

. 4-7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 13.

. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16.

Some 40 years ago, the village was a work in progress, one which took project carpenter and architect Lois Springer three months’ work during each of three years to create the more than 20 buildings which drew lovers of Christmas to see it all on her lawn on North Main Street.

In the early 1980s, the Christmas village became an indoor exhibit for the Brewer Historical Society.

It hasn’t been displayed for several years, but now members are taking out the pieces, cleaning them off and sprucing them up for another festive showing, said Susan Xirinachs. All of the pieces are lighted, and in many cases the roof lifts up so that visitors can peek inside.

Springer died in 1999, but a 1968 interview with the Bangor Daily News offered a good deal of background on the project.

“The interiors of the buildings are completely furnished as in real life, right down to eggs in the frying pan on a stove and tissue in the bathrooms,” she said.

“Is it a replica of a particular Maine town? No. It’s completely a thing of the imagination,” Springer said. “I wanted to do something a little different, and I thought of building a church and a creche. I like children and was interested in doing it for my grandchildren and the neighboring children. Then, it sort of mushroomed.

“When I first got started four years ago, I didn’t know a thing about carpentry. I bent every nail at first,” she said. “But I got so I can handle a sabre saw pretty well.”

Springer credited a neighbor, carpenter Benjamin Nason, with providing help and advice, especially for the first few buildings.

“I would be running back and forth every time a question came up,” she said. “I had no idea of building proportions and such.”

Springer spent a good bit of time rounding up miniature furniture and pieces to equip the buildings because, she said, “the interiors are what people really come to see.”

The first year she put out just three pieces of the village – and 300 people came by to see it. Two years later, attendance had grown to 3,000. In 1968, Key Club members helped staff the exhibit to raise funds for the March of Dimes.

Now the village resides with the Brewer Historical Society, which works year round to maintain and repair the Clewley Museum. Society members will be on hand for the exhibit, which will feature music and refreshments.

They hope the children of 40 years ago will return to enjoy the Yule village once more and that new generations of children will be fascinated by the church, the bandstand with choir, the schoolhouse, the jail, the covered bridge, farm, the stable, the inn, the bank, the stores, the railroad station, the barbershop, the homes and, of course, the post office of Springheirville, Maine.

For information, call 989-3094 or 989-5013.