Brunswick’s Pejepscot History Center is again giving local residents a chance to learn about the women who helped shaped Brunswick.
“Women of Brunswick: Famous and Lesser Known,” is a walking tour of historical sites led by local historian Candace Kanes.
“All of our tour guides for these walks are quite knowledgeable about these particular streets or areas,” Larissa Vigue Picard, executive director of Pejepscot History Center, said.
According to the center’s website, Kanes has been leading women’s history tours for years, and has added to and revised the tour.
“Women of Brunswick” beings at 1:30 p.m. and is expected to last for 90 minutes.
Sarah Cook, nicknamed “Cookie,” in 1931. Cook was Brunswick’s police matron from 1916-1936. She added Topsham to her beat in 1919. Pejepscot History Center
The tour is part of an annual series that occurs every summer. Walking tours have emphasized stories of the past, perspective on the landscape, social time and exercise to participants.
The center’s walking tours will run every Sunday through September.
Of the 12 tours being offered this summer, seven are brand new or heavily revised, according to Picard.
“The first tour we did was full,” Picard said. “The registrations for the upcoming tours have been coming in every day. Since we are now doing online ticketing through Eventbrite, it makes it easy for people to register.”
“These walking tours have always been very popular, and with so many new topics that people have never been exposed to, I think all the tours will be pretty full this year,” Picard added.
While the center offered minimum outdoor walking tours last year due to COVID-19 restrictions, private family guided tours, limiting to four people, were held with mandatory mask rule at both house museums.
However, Picard said that there are no restrictions this year.
Lt. Leslie Arnold, one of the “Round-the-World Fliers,” sits on the wing of one of the aircrafts that landed at Mere Point on September 5, 1924, during the final U.S. leg of the circumnavigation of the globe. Pejepscot History Center
“The walking tours this year will be the same as they were in 2019. There are no restrictions as such. People can gather at the starting point where ever the tour begins and the tour guides will lead them,” said Picard.
A walking tour focused on Park Row and the Mall will take place on July 18. The tour explores the development of the street, notable buildings, and their occupants.
Later this month, a multi-stop tour of Merrymeeting Park and Humphrey’s Shipyard will be held on July 25. The event allows attendees to learn about trolley-stop tourism and Maine shipbuilding.
Currently, the center has an exhibit titled “Taking Wing: A Century of Flight in Brunswick.” It shares the aviation history of Brunswick-Topsham region. The exhibit also features rare photographs, maps, signs, plane models, documents, an important propeller blade, and more of the first airplane that landed in Brunswick in 1921.
The free exhibit is open Tuesday to Saturday through the end of December, said Picard.
The cost for guided tours is $5 for PHS members and $10 for non-members. For more information, visit pejepscothistorical.org.
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