Waldo County Open Space is part of the work of Timelines, Community, Inc, a Maine not-for-profit organization working to revive the former Farwell Brothers Mill & Store in Thorndike Village, Maine.
Farwell’s (1873-1960) was once the hub of a busy town and a center of agricultural commerce for most of the county. When Farwell’s Mill closed, Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad stopped the run to Thorndike for lack of cargo. Other businesses went dry, and soon Thorndike resembled a ghost town.
In 2015, Timelines Community had been dormant for a decade, and a group of local artisans felt that a revival of Farwell’s could begin a revival of this small town. We are currently purchasing the buildings, and subsequently the State Grange awarded us the vacant Harvest Moon Grange which abuts the Farwell buildings. The four-building complex will soon join the National Historic Register, and the Mill has been said to be one of the last of its age to remain completely intact in New England.
In two years we have cleaned and sorted, jacked and lifted, catalogued 4,000 books, created a vintage 1940s kitchen, a reading room, and we begin to stock The Homestead Store. Our longer term plan is to raise the former General Store to grade; a 70-foot-long building that has lost its foundation over the years to road runoff. This is a major fundraising effort; the Open Space Festival is a small part of that.
Once the Store is revived, we will create a Storytelling Museum within its walls, with 6 artisanal studios overhead to practice and teach historic Maine hand and mind skills lost to modernization. Arts and skills will include stitching, clothing design, woodworking, masonry, basket making, letterpress printing, bookbinding, storytelling, literacy, handwriting, instrument building, shingle and box-milling and foundry work.
We need volunteers, and we can always use your tax-deductible donations! Reach us at thorndikemillmaine@gmail.com or hunt us up at the Open Space Festival in June.
