Farwell’s sold everything one would need for life in rural Maine, from food to shoes to horse collars. This photo shows the second building we are working to restore, after road runoff damage has collapsed the understructure.
Photo credit: Kosti Ruohomaa/Maine State Museum
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Find out about our organization, mission, and the results of our decades of work with storytelling.
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Farwell’s Museum Store and Garden Variety are open for the season starting Saturday, June 3rd, 2023. Days and hours following are Fridays - Sundays, 11 am - 4 pm til Christmas.
A brief history.
Farwell's was established by Oscar J. Farwell in 1873 in conjunction with the construction of the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad. The general store and grain mill provided agricultural access between northern farms and central Maine ports. At Oscar’s death, the business was continued by his two sons, Bill and Dick. The store and mill finally closed its doors in 1960, before the passing of Dick, the last surviving member of the family. Dick Farwell had no living heirs, but his legacy lives on in his many generous acts, among them a generous trust to the town to defray taxes for the poor. • As a result of Farwell’s closing, the railroad ceased to run from Thorndike, and the other village shops and mills soon closed their doors. A town that had supported a department store, a cheese factory, a car dealership, two general stores, two grain mills, a lumber mill, a cobbler and an inn quickly became very quiet.
Photo credit: Holly Ryan - Sunrise on the Mill