RUMFORD — The moment you entered the 1828 Rumford Center Meeting House on Sept. 13, you were transported back some 200 years.

The Rumford Center Village Improvement Society hosted an open house in connection with the 250th commemoration of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

The historic timber-framed, gable-front building was filled with volunteers wearing period garb, operating a spinning wheel or hand spinning, rug hooking, and playing various colonial period kid games.

There was a display of hand tools used at that time, and food was prepared that might have been served here at one time or another when this was Rumford’s original town hall and joint political, governmental and religious meeting place.

A traveling exhibit about Frances Perkins, a Mainer who served as secretary of labor and was the main architect and driving force behind the creation of Social Security, was also featured.

Representatives from A Wrinkle in Thyme Farm in Sumner also attended. The farm, owned and operated by women, uses organic practices, including yarn and wool products and farm-made maple products. Farm representatives were Marty Elkin of Sumner, Linda Joyal of Byron and Becky Ohman, an artist in residence who brought the earliest form of a spinning wheel that she put together and got up and running.

Many of the games were brought by Michelle Josephson, of Cumberland, who teaches historical education, mostly at the Victoria Mansion in Portland. The mansion is described as one of the finest and best-preserved examples of pre-Civil War Italianate architecture and lavish mid-19th-century interior design in the United States.

One of those was the devices for a girls’ game called “Graces.” Brie Weisman and her partner, Jon Starr, took the game outside to enjoy on the grass beside the Meeting House.

Society member Linda Russell said this has been an exciting and productive year for the Rumford Center Meeting House.

The attic and walls of the Meeting House were stabilized, a new heating system was installed, the front steps were rebuilt using the original granite, a ramp was built, the bathroom is fully functional, and all of the electrical systems have been updated.

The society has a bottle shed, built by Region 9 School of Applied Technology students, to collect and return bottles.

Over the past year, the society received grants from Poland Spring Foundation, the Davis Family Foundation and Maine Community Foundation, funding from the town and its own fundraising. Ralph’s Market assists with the bottle drive.

Russell said it has more than 80 members who pay $25 or more per household.

Formed in 1924, the nonprofit Rumford Center Village Improvement Society stepped in to coordinate community activities and oversee the long-term maintenance and preservation of the aging structure.

Voters in Rumford approved a lease agreement on Jan. 24, 2023, allowing the town to lease the historic 1828 Rumford Center Meeting House on Route 2 to the nonprofit Rumford Center Village Improvement Society. The lease gives the society legal control to apply for preservation grants and raise funds for restoring the building.

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