Blacksmith Shop Museum
From Katahdin
The Blacksmith Shop Museum is built on one of the first deeded pieces of properties of the early town of Foxcroft, at a time when its population numbered only ten.
As a part of the Waldo Patent, then part of Hancock County, District of Maine, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Joseph Ellery Foxcroft, of New Gloucester, deeded the property to Nathan Carpenter, a brother of the first settler to clear land and build a log house in which to live, including 50 acres of Lot N, 4th Range. The original house built at that time still stands nearby.
In June of 1836, the land (then a part of Penobscot County) was sold to Aaron Prouty, and changed hands several times as more and more people moved into the area. In 1838, Piscataquis County was incorporated, to include the towns of Dover and Foxcroft; shortly afterwards, deeds to the property were made out to Alden Washburn, in 1840; Augustus Fitzgerald, in 1846; Nahum McKusick, in 1851; Samuel Gile, in 1861; and then to Nicholas Chandler, in the early 1860s, as the Civil War was underway. Chandler bred and trained horses, and it was in connection with this that he built the original blacksmith shop.
Eventually, the shop was deeded to Mr. Chandler's sister, Cynthia Chandler Parsons, whose husband, Henry Parsons, was a blacksmith by trade. He and others in the community formed the Cooperative Blacksmithing Company of Foxcroft, at which time the building was enlarged.
Parsons was the last occupant to use the shop, as the blacksmith shop closed in 1905. Although it sat dormant for many years, its construction was such that it held up to the ravages of time and neglect.
The Blacksmith Shop Museum today displays much of its original equipment, some of which never left the building, others which were returned. Even the old anvil, removed from the shop many years ago, has been returned to its original site. The bellows actually pre-date the shop, as they were constructed in 1830.
The Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society, organized in 1963, maintains and staffs the Blacksmith Shop Museum, which was the organization's first endeavor.
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Operating schedule
- Open from Memorial Day to October.
Contact information
- Location: 105 Dawes Road; Dover-Foxcroft, Maine 04426
- Phone: 207.564.8618
- Email: dlockwood@midmaine.com
