Up, Up and Away into the Future!
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“Fuller Mansion” – 83 Elm Street – Future Home of the Hartland Historical Society
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Updated May 17, 2024!
Over the past 20+ years, the Hartland Historical Society has been grateful recipients and faithful guardians of an incredible collection of historical artifacts, photos, heirlooms, documents and maps graciously donated by dozens and dozens of folks who share an interest in Hartland’s history.
For many years, we were storing our entire collection at the library which unfortunately greatly limited access for us or for any public viewing. As our collection continued to grow and grow (and grow!), our library storage area filled to capacity forcing us to spread some of our collection around in few other safe private storage areas. While this was a “good problem” to have, we recognized the dire need for a viable alternative to safely and securely collect, store and display this precious collection.
At our August meeting in 2022, the Hartland Historical Society committed itself to an aggressive campaign in pursuit of a dedicated home. Membership authorized the creation of a dedicated Create-A-Home Fundraiser in hopes of providing ample funding for a viable option which might present itself as a suitable and sustainable location as a home for the historical society.
Based on our available finances at the time and our humble (but hopeful!) fundraiser expectations, our original considerations for a dedicated home included leasing a room in town which, at the very least, would provide us with a short-term solution to publicly display some of our collection.
Following the initial rollout of the Create-A-Home Fundraiser, there has been incredibly generous and ongoing public support through donations of all sizes to the campaign much to our unanticipated but very grateful delight. This enabled us to then confidently consider an investment to a long-term commitment in a larger and more suitable location to fulfill our ever growing needs. With this gracious financial backing in mind, we continued to research and discuss several potential purchase and construction options brought before membership, however none quite adequately fulfilled our overall requirements as such.
And the search continued…that is, until now!!
We are thrilled to announce our official purchase on May 17, 2024 of the house & lot at 83 Elm Street in Hartland as our future dedicated home! This finely built 10+ room house, often referred to as the old Fuller Mansion, has had a few associated names, occupants, modifications and uses since its construction in 1904 and is one of the most recognizable and historically significant properties remaining in Hartland. Much of the house’s history (in-progress) may be found on its new dedicated Fuller Mansion page.
This momentous event would not have been possible without YOUR incredibly generous support of our Create-A-Home Fundraiser allowing us to be in a respectful financial position to seize this rare opportunity when it recently became available. THANK YOU!!
This important and substantial investment in our future is a major step forward in the historical society’s ongoing mission to discover, preserve and, now at last, soon publicly display our vast collection for all those interested in Hartland’s history in this magnificent setting with ample storage but there is now much more to be done to make it our “home”.
With this first goal of securing a dedicated location accomplished, we now turn our attention to the first of several phases of prioritized tasks to transform this grand house into our home including some general deep cleaning and immediately necessary repairs essential for accessibility and public safety for all.
We are fortunate this house was VERY well financed when it was built and no expense was spared for its fine construction with a solid infrastructure and high quality, detailed craftsmanship throughout the building. Understandably, it has not been totally immune to time or weather but has fairly new vinyl siding and the entire roof was recently replaced alleviating any immediate major exterior repair concerns.
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To facilitate these immediate and future phases, we have transitioned the Create-A-Home Fundraiser into our new Make-It-Home Fundraiser campaign. We hope you will please consider a donation of any amount to our new fundraiser and support our ongoing efforts to make this long awaited goal a reality for all. Your generous donation is also tax deductible as we are a registered 501(c) non-profit organization. A couple of our most common options to make a donation are:
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OPTION 1: To make a donation by check, a special form for our Make-It-Home Fundraiser is attached below to print & mail with your check and includes an option to dedicate your donation to a person or group. Unable to print the donation form or just want to mail a check without the form? No problem! Just send along your phone number or email address with your check and we’ll be happy to contact you and fill out the form for you!
Make It Home Fundraiser Donation Form
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Remit to: Hartland Historical Society
P. O. Box 173
Hartland, ME 04943-0173
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OPTION 2: To make a donation by electronic transfer, use the Donate Button below for our dedicated Make-It-Home Fundraiser PayPal account. This also includes an option to make payment as a Guest using a Credit or Debit Card if you do not have a PayPal account. If you use the PayPal option, we’ll contact you and fill out a donation form for you.
Thank You for Your Support!!
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For further donation options or questions, contact us directly via the email option at the bottom of the Contact Us page.
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Mary hired Frederick Augustus Tompson of Portland to design her new home. Mr. Tompson (1857-1919) was a prominent architect of his time well known for his design of dozens of houses, schools, churches and public buildings mostly in the greater Portland area.
A complete set of the original architectural blueprints drawn by Frederick A. Tompson were discovered at the house and presented to the Hartland Historical Society following our acquisition of the property. All 23 pages of blueprints have since been digitized by historical society member Randy Butler for our archives to print and eventually display selected framed copies for public viewing.
1st Floor Plan by Frederick A. Tompson for Mary I. Fuller’s New Residence
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A few of the photos shared with us by the previous owners reveal some of the fine craftsmanship and a couple of the numerous potential spaces we hope to eventually transform into display areas, work & research areas and storage space as funds allow us to move forward. Some examples of our vast collection awaiting public display may be found on the Artifacts Collection page here on our website.
1st Floor – Library
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1st Floor – Library
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1st Floor – Library
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1st Floor – Front Entrance Hallway with entries to Parlor & Dining Room
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1st Floor – Dining Room
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1st Floor – Dining Room
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1st Floor – Parlor
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2nd Floor – Chamber D
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1st Floor – Original Butler Pantry in background with modern Kitchen Addition
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3rd Floor Storage Room with Water Cistern on right
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