The Society is extremely honored to announce the receipt of a $500 grant from the Maine Humanities Council to support the 2008 Lecture Series, "Maine History: Varied and Vivid."  Each year the Bethel Historical Society offers a series of lectures on local and regional history topics, with a Maine theme often part of this educational programming.  This year’s offering will include presentations on a number of interesting subjects by leading experts in the field.  For a complete list of these free lectures, please visit the events page on our website.

Among the important early structures associated with Bethel's founding, but no longer extant, is the "West Parish Congregational Meetinghouse," completed in 1807 and taken down in 1848.  A near-copy of the old Cumberland County Courthouse, which once stood on the site of today's Portland City Hall, the Bethel meetinghouse was erected under the supervision of Major Amos Hills—a local farmer, justice of the peace, and "house carpenter"—near the south bank of the Androscoggin River and west of the present Route 2 bridge between Bethel Hill and Mayville.  Razed over a century and a half ago, the Congregational Meetinghouse (where Reverend Daniel Gould, among others, preached) has re-materialized in a highly detailed O scale (1/4 inch to 1 foot) replica created by skilled model maker James Auman of Warren, New Jersey, and Norway, Maine.  Presented to the Society by Jim and his wife, Linda, the meetinghouse model joins replicas of Bethel's Grand Trunk Railway station and the Bethel "Chair Factory"—also donated by the Aumans—on display in the Society's "Bethel: A Historic Town" exhibit.  To view several larger images of the meetinghouse, click here.

A slightly condensed version of the Bethel Historical Society's highly popular exhibit "Molly Ockett and Her World" is now available on this web site.  Displayed at the Robinson House from July 2004 through May 2007, the exhibit utilized photographs, artifacts, paintings, and written text to tell the story of the Abenaki woman Molly Ockett and the world in which she lived from her birth at Saco, Maine, around 1740 to her death in Andover in 1816.  Honored annually at Bethel's "Molly Ockett Day" celebration, Molly Ockett's name is connected today with numerous geographic landmarks, business ventures, and community organizations in western Maine.  Click here to view the online exhibit.  Painting by Danna Brown Nickerson

Begun in 1816 and extensively remodeled circa 1857, the Middle Intervale Meetinghouse is Bethel's oldest and most historic civic/religious structure.  The Meetinghouse is situated on Intervale Road, approximately three-and-a-half miles downriver of Bethel Hill village.  The structure was once the site of Bethel town meetings, as well as Baptist and Methodist church services, and is cared for today by the Middle Intervale Meetinghouse Society, which was organized in 1978 to preserve the important local landmark.  This organization, which is closely affiliated with the Bethel Historical Society, welcomes groups interested in holding functions in the Meetinghouse, as well as on the village common in front of the building.  For more information and rental rates, please phone Allen Cressy at 207-824-0508 or email him at ajcressy@megalink.net.