Parlor
Kitchen
Library
Marriner Hall
Apothecary
Opening Page
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THE REDINGTON MUSEUM
Custodians:
Bryan
and Bonny Finnemore
The Redington Museum offers a comprehensive and charming view
of life in Waterville during the past two centuries. Fascinating
collections of furniture, accessories, household artifacts, toys, tools,
and weapons as well as historical papers and diaries, are located in an
elegant Federal-style home at 62 Silver Street. The museum is a civic
treasure, maintained and supported with pride by the Waterville Historical
Society. Waterville has had a long and varied history of commerce,
agriculture, and manufacturing that in turn supported a lively community
bound together by educational institutions, the arts, sports, politics,
social and recreational activities. A visit to the Redington Museum
affords accurate and engaging insights into the lives of the people who
lived here.
The museum is housed in a handsome two story home built in 1814 by pioneer
Waterville settler Asa Redington, a veteran of three enlistments in the
Revolutionary War and a member of George Washington's elite Honor Guard.
After the revolution he developed the water rights at Ticonic Falls and
with his sons Samuel and William established a thriving flour mill on the
banks of the Kennebec River. The father of six sons and three daughters,
Asa built this substantial home for his son William. Fashioned of
great hewn timbers, all hand pegged, it still features the original spiral
staircase, fireplaces with period woodwork, and floors of wide pumpkin
pine. The newel post in the entrance exhibits the "contractor's peace stone,"
a small smooth polished stone signifying in Colonial times that the project
had been completed to both the owner's and builder's satisfaction.
Today five rooms are furnished with antiques of the late 18th and early
19th centuries from the Redington family, the family of pioneer attorney
Timothy Boutelle, and from other early local families. The house
has been open to the public as a museum since 1927 and was entered in the
National Register of Historic Places.
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