Keeping History Alive! – the town party celebrating the preservation of the Marion General Store – has ended, and the bouncy house, the DJ, and the food trucks have gone away – but the celebration continues with an exhibit at at the Sippican Historical Society.
Featuring items from the archives of the SHS, the exhibit includes displays in both the front window and in the Dr. Ellis Room inside the Museum. You’ll see photos depicting the chronological history of the General Store in Marion, a sketch by former Curator H. Edmund Tripp of the original building’s interior as a space for worship services, and even a lampshade bearing the images of the General Store, the Congregational Church, and the Town House. You can find account books from the A.J. Hadley era, 19th century hymnals and a songbook for children, a sewing table owned by seamstress Angeline Blankenship, a beautiful flowered hat, and other items representing the variety of activities that took place in the building we know as the Marion General Store. Did you know that there had been a barber shop and a jeweler/watch maker on the second floor back when the building was called Hadley’s Hall? There are also photos of the beautiful painted ceiling that dates to the early years of the building when it served as a Meeting House between 1799 – 1841; the beautiful blue and gold scrolls, shells, crosses and curliques remain to this day above the second floor. You’ll also find some photographs of people we haven’t been able to identify – why not take in the exhibit some Saturday and see if you recognize some of them?
The exhibit will be up through the end of August – bring your summer visitors and learn more about the long, proud history of the building we know as the Marion General Store!
