PRESS RELEASE:

New Book and Exhibition
Launch 30th Anniversary Celebration of
Pettengill Farm Stewardship

FREEPORT, Maine – A landmark publication and exhibition will launch the Freeport Historical Society’s 30th anniversary celebration of owning and caring for Pettengill Farm, the popular 140-acre preserve along the Harraseeket River estuary.

A new book, “A Window Through Time: Pettengill Farm and the Soul of New England,” was released at an opening reception on June 15, at Harrington House, 45 Main Street, Freeport. The book includes 27 black and white photographs by fine art photographer John G. Kelley and an essay by Maine State Historian Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. and is available for purchase for $18.95.

The exhibition complements the book by including artifacts from Pettengill Farm and historical images drawn from the society’s Pettengill archives, as well as the original prints of Kelley’s photographs. The exhibition runs through December. Exhibit hours are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10 – 2:30 PM, Wednesday 10 – 7 PM.

Pettengill Farm dates from 1799 when Joseph and Aaron Lufkin arrived from Gloucester, Mass. and began clearing land for a saltwater farm. The farm’s saltbox-style house was constructed circa 1810 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mildred Gerry Pettengill, the farm’s last resident, was born in the house in 1882.

In 1975 Freeport preservationists Eleanor Houston and Lawrence M.C. Smith gave Pettengill Farm to Freeport Historical Society, which has since served as steward of this beautiful and important resource.

The book focuses on the saltbox house. “When you step into that house, you step back in time,” said Randall Wade Thomas, executive director of the Freeport Historical Society. “You get a clear feeling of what it meant to live in New England 100 and 200 years ago – how deeply rooted daily existence was in the land and sea, and the work and perseverance it took to get by.
“The ‘soul of New England’ is how we came to think of the book and exhibit,” Thomas continued, “because that’s what you experience when you connect with Pettengill Farm.”

Kelley was drawn to the quality of light, the textures and the stillness of the farmhouse. “I wanted to explore the sense of time and place the house evokes – the feeling of wonder you get when you walk in,” he said. “That’s where you really sense the life of this house.”

Shettleworth’s essay asks, “…what if these walls could talk?” He eloquently brings to life the people and ways of life that made Pettengill Farm home.

The Pettengill saltbox is managed as a “study house” in which layers of human occupation, along with structural elements like beams and plaster laths, are left accessible for historic interpretation. Among the house’s many features are the unique etchings of ships carved into plaster walls. Known as “sgraffitti,” these detailed and expressive etchings date from ca. 1829.

The exhibition may be viewed June through December 2005 during the Society’s regular business hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. –2:30 p.m.; and Wednesday, 10 a.m.-7p.m.

Additional 30th anniversary programs include a special Pettengill Farm Day in October, intepretive studies for school children and a fall photographic workshop.

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Freeport Historical Society actively collects and preserves materials and artifacts related to the history of Freeport, and owns two important historic properties: Harrington House and Pettengill Farm.
John G. Kelley [link] is a fine-art photographer based in Falmouth. His images are featured in galleries and have appeared in numerous publications.
Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. has been director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission since 1976 and was appointed by Gov. John Baldacci in 2004 to serve as State Historian. He is a widely published author.