Florence B Dearing Museum
Florence Baker Dearing, in whose honor the museum was named,
served as the librarian for Cromaine Library for 26 years, beginning in 1934.
She began
collecting for the museum in the fall of 1958 when the Hartland Consolidated
Schools no longer needed the library
basement for classrooms. At that time Mrs. Dearing sent out a call to
the community asking for the donation of local historical items. Her aim
was to preserve and exhibit the relics of rural
home and farm life from the Hartland area for school children as well
as adults and the generations to come. The museum was opened to the public
in 1959 with a major part of the collection coming
from the home of Seth and Mae Dexter whose farm on U.S. 23 had been sold
to the state highway department.
The Hartland Board of Education voted unanimously in 1960 to rename the
museum in honor of Mrs. Dearing in her final year at Cromaine Library.
After the Hartland Consolidated Schools turned the museum collection
over to the Hartland Area Historical Society and the collection moved
to the "Old Town Hall," the Hartland Area Historical Society voted to
name the collection's new home the Florence B Dearing Museum.
