Maine Memory Network
Maine's Online Museum

Title: Ethlyn Adams, Dixfield Common, 1937

Contributed by: Dixfield Historical Society

Date: 1937

Location: Dixfield

Media: photograph

Title: Survey plot, Cambridge Commons, 1792

Contributed by: Jonathan Fisher Memorial, Inc.

Date: 1792

Location: Blue Hill

Media: Ink on paper

Title: Paris Hill Common as it looked ca. 1822

Contributed by: Hamlin Memorial Library and Museum

Date: circa 1900

Location: Paris

Media: print of drawing

Address: 9 Forest Avenue, Portland

Owner in 1924: Use in common by abutters.

Use: Passage

Address: 68 Oak Street, Portland

Owner in 1924: Common passage used by abutters

Use: Passage

Evergreens and a Jolly Old Elf

Santa Claus and evergreens have been common December additions to homes, schools, businesses, and other public places to America since the mid nineteenth century. They are two symbols of the Christian holiday of Christmas whose origins are unrelated to the religious meaning of the day.

Farm-yard Frames

Throughout New England, barns attached to houses are fairly common. Why were the buildings connected? What did farmers or families gain by doing this? The phenomenon was captured in the words of a children's song, "Big house, little house, back house, barn," (Thomas C. Hubka Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, the Connected Farm Buildings of New England, University Press of New England, 1984.)