Windham County - Museum Directory

Westminster Historical Society

Please Note: We make every effort to ensure the information listed for open hours or events is accurate, but we recommend contacting the organization directly to confirm before making plans to visit.

Bellows Falls Historical Society

31 Westminster St, Bellows Falls, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 176, Bellows Falls, VT 05101
Phone: (802) 376-9876
Contact: Cathy Bergmann, President

BFHS's mission is to establish and maintain a space for the exhibitions of historical artifacts and implements relating to the history and growth of the area in and around the Village of Bellows Falls and the Town of Rockingham.BFHS manages a large collection including ephemera, photographs, and clothing at our new Center Museum at 31 Westminster St.  The Adam’s Grist Mill Museum houses our Vermont Farm Machinery collection, tools, grinding stones, etc.

Hours and Admission: BFHS Archives, Education Center and Museum, Open Saturday 1-3. Frank Adams Grist Mill, 20 Mill Street, Bellows Falls is open 11-3, Saturdays, MAY - 1st weekend in OCTOBER. Enjoy the Riverfront Park, the Labyrinth and the stunning vista from the Hawk’s Eye View Overlook year round.

Brattleboro Historical Society, Inc.

Municipal Building, 230 Main Street, 3rd floor, Brattleboro, VT
Mailing Address: 230 Main Street, Suite 301, Brattleboro, VT 05301
Phone: (802) 258-4957
Website: bhs802.org/
Contact: Carol Farrington, Secretary

The Brattleboro Historical Society has a large collection of local photographs as well as extensive information on individuals, properties, and businesses. 

Hours: Municipal Building- History Room: Thursdays, 2-4 pm & Saturdays, 10-12 pm. Other hours by appointment.

Brattleboro Words Trail

118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, VT
Mailing Address: 118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, Vermont 05301
Phone: (917) 239-8743
Contact: Lissa Weinmann, Director, LRWeinmann@gmail.com

A local audio project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Brattleboro Words Trail leads listeners on an exciting exploration of the people and places that make it America's most storied small town.     

 

Dover Historical Society

1820 Harris House, 103 VT Rte 100, Dover, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 128, East Dover, VT 05341
Phone: (802) 348-6849
Contact: Patti Buck, Secretary

The society has refurbished a circa 1820s house/blacksmith shop to become its headquarters and a museum that displays all types of artifacts and manuscripts pertaining to life in Dover and the region from the late 1700s to the present. The museum opened in May 1999. Please contact the society to donate items related to Dover history.

Hours and Admission: July - September: Saturday, noon - 4:00 pm, or by appointment. Main museum area (1st floor) is accessible to the disabled.

Dummerston Historical Society

1521 Middle Rd, East Dummerston, VT 05346
Mailing Address: PO Box 8064, North Brattleboro, VT 05304
Phone: (802) 380-7525
Contact: Muriel Taylor, President

Visitors by appointment.

Estey Organ Museum

108 Birge Street, Brattleboro, VT
Mailing Address: 108 Birge Street, Brattleboro, VT 05201

To celebrate the heritage of Estey Organ Company of Brattleboro, VT by the collection, restoration, display and performance of Estey and other organs; by the preservation, research, interpretation and dissemination of historical information about the company, its products and manufacturing practices, its owners, employees, markets, customers and competitors, and its effect in the context of Brattleboro and American history.

Hours and Admission: Saturdays, 2-4 PM, mid-May through mid-October, and by appointment.

Grafton Historical Society

Grafton History Museum, 147 Main Street, Grafton, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 202, Grafton, VT 05146
Phone: (802) 843-2584
Contact: Maureen Fletcher, Administrator

Educational, nonprofit society to bring together those persons interested in history, to discover and collect material illustrative of life, conditions, events and activities of the past and present to the history or Grafton, Vermont. To provide for the preservation and accessibility of such material, as far as may be feasible.

Hours and Admission: Year Round: Monday, Thursday, Friday: 10:00 am- 4:00 pm (please call in advance)
Memorial Day - Columbus Day: Monday, Thursday through Sunday: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Guilford Historical Society

1822 Town Hall, Guilford Center Road, Guilford Center, VT
Mailing Address: 236 School Road, Guilford VT 05301
Phone: (802) 257-0147

The 1822 town hall houses exhibits of Guilford artifacts including a 19th century kitchen, arrowheads, photographs, antique and slate industry tools, textiles, household items, and a directory of Guilford's cemeteries and headstones. The society also operates the 1837 meetinghouse and the 1797 one-room brick schoolhouse.

Hours and Admission: Memorial Day - Columbus Day: Tuesday and Saturday 10:00 am - 2:00 pm, or by appointment. Free. Donations appreciated. Accessible to the disabled.

Halifax Historical Society

Museum in Center of Village next to Fire Department, West Halifax, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 94, West Halifax. VT 05358
Phone: (802) 368-7164
Contact: Doug Parkhurst, President

Housed in a two-room schoolhouse, the museum has a permanent exhibit that includes tools, flatirons, clothing, and quilts. There are occasional demonstrations and house tours and a map of historic homes in the area. The society is in the processing of researching and writing its town history.

Hours and Admission: May 26 - Sept 1: Saturday, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, or by appointment. Free. Partially accessible to the disabled.

Jamaica Historical Foundation

3417 VT Rte 30, Jamaica VT 05343
Mailing Address: 3417 VT Rte 30, Jamaica VT 05343
Phone: (802) 874-4974
Contact: Karen Ameden, President

With a grant from the Town of Jamaica, the society reprinted (4th edition) "Hometown Jamaica: A Pictorial History of a Vermont Village. We have many displays, photos and memorabilia filling up 3 rooms in the Historic Brick Bank Building. We are working on a database to put in our new website that will be coming out in late 2010. We will have all of the town's vital records, cemetery plots, photos and inscriptions, photos of families, buildings, genealogy, interviews, newspaper clippings, maps, and much more. We are interviewing many folks in town and scanning their photos for the website. Visitors by appointment.

Londonderry Arts and Historical Society

Custer-Sharpe House, 2461 Middletown Road, Londonderry, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 366, Londonderry, VT 05148
Phone: (802) 824-3850
Contact: Hillary Batchelor

Bernadine Custer-Sharpe, an artist and founding member of the Southern Vermont Arts Center, bequeathed he 1860 house to the LSH to be the home of the historical society and to be used as an arts and culture center. Bernadine was a versatile and well known artist. Much of her art work now belongs to the society - over 3000 pieces. We have a notable collection of Londonderry history and memorabilia. The historic glass plates may be seen at the South Londonderry Library.

Hours and Admission: June-September: Sat. 10:00 am - 2:00 pm and by appointment

Marlboro Historical Society

Ephraim Holland Newton House, 364 South Road, Marlboro, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 242, Marlboro, VT 05344
Phone: (802) 380-6378
Contact: Jim Tober, President

The collection of furnishings, books, documents, maps, photographs, and school memorabilia are housed in the Newton House and the 1813 one-room schoolhouse on South Road, near the town center. The grounds also include a snow-roller and herb garden. Recent activities have included winter and summer lecture programs and impersonations, one-room schoolhouse reunions, archaeological digs, stone wall maintenance, old games and crafts, interpretive local history, community history projects, sing-alongs, square dances, a summer band concert, river and lake trips, visits to historic sites, old house tours, and thematic exhibits.

Hours and Admission: Currently by appointment only. 

Putney Historical Society

Putney Town Hall, 127 Main St, Putney, VT
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 260, Putney, VT 05346
Phone: (802) 387-4411
Contact: Lyssa Papazian

Organization with a mission “to bring together those persons interested…in the history of the Town of Putney, Vermont…to collect any materials…pertinent to the history of Putney; to acquire property…in order to preserve historic resources.”

Hours and Admission: By appointment during renovations. 

Rockingham Meeting House

11 Meeting House Rd, Rockingham, VT
Mailing Address: Rockingham Town Hall, 7 The Square, Rockingham, VT 05101
Phone: 802.463.3964 ext. 1112
Contact: Walter Wallace, Coordinator, Rockingham Historic Preservation Commission

The meeting house, built in 1787, remains substantially in its original form and is the oldest public building in Vermont that remains unchanged. Historic cemetery. One of only four remaining Type II meeting houses from the early national period, the site is a National Historic Landmark.

Hours and Admission: Seasonal opening from Memorial Day weekend through Indigenous Peoples Day, 7 days per week, 11:00 am. to 5:00 pm. Free will offering.

Saxtons River Historical Society

Museum, 42 Main Street, Saxtons River, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 18, Saxtons River, VT 05154
Phone: (802) 869-2566
Contact: Louise Luring, President

The museum is located on the ground floor of the former Congregational church, built in 1836. The sanctuary on the second floor has a beautiful tracker organ installed in 1900 that is still used for concerts and weddings. Collections range from children's playthings, farm implements, and tools to a completely furnished Victorian parlor and kitchen, local photographs, maps, genealogical records, and other documents. Donations accepted.

Hours and Admission: Summer: Sundays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm, or by appointment.

Townshend Historical Society

Townshend, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 202, Townshend, VT 05353
Phone: (802) 365-4400 or (802) 365-7937
Contact: Robert DuGrenier, Vice-President; Charles E. Merchant, President; or Helen Holt, Treasurer (310) 936-7801

Research materials, recently published town history. Many old photographs scanned for use in town history and web site. Visitors by appointment.

Vernon Historians

1860 Pond Road Chapel, 634 Pond Road, Vernon, VT
Mailing Address: 567 Governor Hunt Road, Vernon, VT 05354
Contact: Heather Frost

This local history museum, in a one-room brick schoolhouse (c. 1848), contains the original schoolroom, farmhouse kitchen, farm tools, plus Vernon photographs and artifacts. The restored Pond Road Chapel, built in 1860, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The chapel is used for special events and is open by appointment.

Hours and Admission:
Museum: June - September: Sunday, 2:00 - 4:00 pm, or by appointment. Donations welcomed.
Chapel: by appointment.

Wardsboro History Group Ltd.

PO Box 33, Wardsboro, VT 05355
Mailing Address: PO Box 33, Wardsboro, VT 05355
Phone: (802) 896-6603
Contact: Janice Hull, President

Westminster Historical Society

3651 US Rte 5, Westminster, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 2, Westminster, VT 05158

The museum, upstairs at Westminster Town Hall (handicap accessible), features items of local history, especially relating to the "massacre" of March 13, 1775 at the site of the Cumberland County, New York, Court House, Westminster, Vermont. Also owned by the society is the Wm. Czar Bradley Law Office, 3613 US Rte. 5, Westminster, Vt. This original building, the only unchanged early 19th-century law office in Vermont, contains the furniture and personal artifacts used by Wm. C. Bradley from 1810 to 1858.  

Hours and Admission: Saturdays, July through August, 2:00 - 4:00 pm or by appointment.

Whitingham Historical Society

Green Mountain Hall, Stimpson Hall Road, Whitingham, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 125, Whitingham, VT 05342
Phone: (802) 368-2448
Contact: Stella Stevens, President

Tools, photographs, household furnishings, church furniture, and a library with old diaries are located in a former church. A new four-panel display created by a local resident displays kitchen gadgets from all eras.

Hours and Admission: July - September: Sunday, 2:00 – 4:00 pm, or by appointment. Accessible to the disabled.

Historical Society of Wilmington

Barber House Museum, 5 Lisle Hill, Wilmington, VT
Mailing Address: PO Box 1751, Wilmington, VT 05363
Phone: (802) 464-3004
Contact: Julie Moore, President

The society's collection at the Barber House Museum includes photographs, framed special local history, town artifacts, scrapbooks, and albums.

Hours of operation: Open Saturdays starting July 4th weekend through Labor Day weekend from 1:00 - 3:00.  Walking tours by appointment only, call (802) 464-3004 or (802) 464-0200.  April through November monthly meetings are held.  Check our website for a listing.

Historical Society of Windham County

Museum, VT Rte 30 and Cemetery Hill Road
Mailing Address: PO Box 246, Newfane, VT 05345
Phone: (802) 365-4148
Contact: Laura Wallingford-Bacon, Director

The Historical Society's County Museum  is located on the main street in Newfane, one of the most beautiful and photographed villages in Vermont. Newfane Village is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Historical Society was founded in 1927 to preserve the heritage of Windham County. The brick Federal-style museum was built in 1936 and houses what has been described as “one of the most intriguing small collections in Vermont.” The Museum’s archives of Vermont manuscripts, photographs and documents are available for historical and genealogical research.

In 2014, the Historical Society purchased the Newfane Railroad Station and after three years of restoration work, opened the West River Railroad Museum.  The Station comprises the old Depot building and Water Tank House, both of which were built in 1880. The Museum houses a significant collection of artifacts, documents and photographs documenting the West River Railroad until it ceased operation in 1936. The West River Railroad Museum is located in Historic Newfane Village on Cemetery Hill Road, a short walk from the Historical Society’s Windham County Museum.

Hours and Admission: Memorial Day Weekend through Indigenous Peoples Weekend -- County Museum and West River Railroad Museum: Saturday and Sunday Noon - 5:00. The County Museum is also open Wednesdays, Noon - 4:00. Inquiries are fielded year round.

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