Fifth Maine Museum
Fifth Maine Museum. Photo: Sarah Hansen.
The Fifth Maine Regiment Memorial Hall was constructed as a memorial and reunion hall in 1888 by the Civil War veterans of the Fifth Maine Volunteers. The iconic stained-glass windows that honor the regiment’s soldiers were also a fundraising scheme to help defray the cost of the building. The veterans created a quiet, almost sacred space where they gathered, reminisced, and drew comfort from each other. As time passed, the reunions grew smaller and smaller (the last one was in 1940), and the building fell into disrepair.
In 1956, The Fifth Maine Regiment building was given to the Peaks Island community by the descendants of the veterans who built it. Since then, restoration work has brought the building back to its former glory. It is an architectural gem that is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Today, the building houses the Fifth Maine Museum, a museum that tells two intriguing and related stories: the history of Peaks Island from its days as “The Coney Island of Maine” to its role in World War II, and the story of the Fifth Maine Regiment.
