WINDHAM – When someone is demolishing a house in town, they sometimes call the Windham Historical Society and tell of something they have found in the walls or attic. Often the “treasure” is saved for the society who will do the research and share the find with the public.

In the April 29, 1980, edition of the Courier Free Press (Windham, Maine), an article told of just such a discovery.

A local businessman, Fred Haskell, owned a building on Route 302, next to the Dairy Queen site at Boody’s Corner (intersection of Route 302 & 115). This building, the former post office building, was being torn down and a wall full of colorful posters advertising a performance of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was uncovered. Haskell saved these unusual “boards” and donated them to the Historical Society. It was estimated that the posters were put up in either 1884 or 1904. They had been on those walls for nearly 100 years and some of the script was quite faded.

The billboards advertised “Witherell and Davies majestic revival of the famous, moral and picturesque drama of Uncle Tom’s Cabin…an “unrivalled success,” which was to be performed at a “mammoth pavilion opera house.”

Between 1852 and 1900, it’s estimated that a million copies of the book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, were sold. Next to the Bible, it was the best selling book following the Civil War. The play, based on the story by Maine author Harriet Beecher Stowe, was performed more often in America than any other production. During the 1880s, there were up to 500 “Tom Shows” on the road across the country. Just where the production advertised in Windham was being performed is not known; however, the fact that it was advertised here shows how popular and well known the show was. Many of these “Tom” shows were minstrel shows.

The wallboards, on which the posters were affixed, were catalogued into the archives of the society, and put in the only space available for storage – the attic at the circa 1830 brick society building to await restoration. Unfortunately, a leaky roof and squirrels, mice and other varmints caused tremendous damage and the old wallboards became history – like the subject they depicted.