Stoddard Historical Society Building

An early 1900s photo of the Historical Society Building, likely by Charles Peirce

The Historical Society Building was originally the shoe shop for Nathan Morse, who built his house immediately to the east in 1843. This small building, with its wide front porch, was also used as a milliner’s shop and grocery store. In 1907, William O. Loveland proposed at an Olde Home Days gathering to make the building into a museum and library. Citizen subscribers contributed money and labor to buy and remodel the old shop into a place for the growing town library and for historical items of the town. It was opened on Olde Home Days in 1915.

Next door is a smaller building known now as the Hearse House which holds both a winter hearse/sleigh and a summer hearse on wheels. Both would have been horse-drawn. The museum and Hearse House are open only during the warmer months since there is no heat inside them. (see Stoddard Historical Society’s webpage for hours).