New home for old treasures Millinocket historians have a vision for their museum

MILLINOCKET – Explore the inside of the former Mott Apartment Building on Central Street and you see a collection of small empty rooms, neat and clean but with walls slightly yellowed with age.

Look at it through the eyes of Sally Bouchard and the rest of the Millinocket Historical Society and you see at least two fully remodeled floors of wide rooms full of displays and artifacts detailing Millinocket’s rich culture and manufacturing history.

That vision might take a few years to achieve, but the society has started down the path toward realizing it since the Town Council voted 4-3 on Oct. 25 to allocate about $100,000 for the purchase and upkeep of the building. The council’s action was later reaffirmed with another 4-3 vote.

“This building has a lot of potential because we can have a lot of displays here and rotate them regularly,” Bouchard, the society’s president, said during a society meeting at the society’s future museum Thursday.

Under the deal, the society has two years to raise money to pay the town back or the town can sell the property. Extensive building renovations cannot occur until the town is repaid. About $90,000 buys the building, with the rest covering closing and utility costs over the two years.

The society is planning fundraisers to pay back the town the loan over the next two years, including potluck suppers, raffles and other events. No fundraiser dates have been set.

Society members are excited by the new space and its possibilities, member David Duplisea said. It represents a quantum improvement over the small rooms the society uses on the second floor of Town Hall near the Millinocket District Court.

“Right now there’s just a lot of stuff just jammed into a little room,” Duplisea said of the museum’s present location.

The museum needs the new space. Many of its artifacts are huge, including an old sterilizer from Millinocket Regional Hospital, an iron washing machine and a 400-pound bell that, depending upon who you ask, came from a river steamboat or tugboat.

“We also want space for people to come and do genealogy research,” museum Curator Trudy Wyman said.

Among the projects society members are working on are:

. A video documentary on the 1963 state champion Stearns High School boys basketball team that already includes footage of an awards banquet and victory parade. Anyone with information, items or time to contribute to that effort may contact society member Frank Crosby at crosbyfj@ime.net;

. A re-creation of a typical Millinocket school classroom from ages past, complete with desks and other devices contributed from residents;

. The society’s 2009 calendar, which members are assembling with historic photographs and data;

. A catalogue of more than 5,000 items donated to the museum. The items, Crosby and Bouchard said, were logged when donated, but they do not fit into displays and were not similarly organized.

“It’s a huge effort,” Crosby said.

The society meets every third Thursday of the month at the future museum space at 6:30 p.m. and has its own Web site: millinockethistoricalsociety.com.

Anyone interested in joining the organization or donating money or artifacts is welcome to attend meetings or to write checks or money orders to “Millinocket Historical Society,” c/o P.O. Box 11, Millinocket 04462.

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