FREEPORT — The Historical Society has started looking for ideas, artifacts and stories to help develop their next year-long exhibit, “Freeport’s Amusements, Entertainments and Oddities.”

Executive Director Christina White said Freeport residents are invited to share their memories to help shape the project.

“As of right now we have a few ideas, our toes are in the water,” she said. “But we need the help of those who have heard the stories or have lived the past and can tell us what they know. We want to start the conversation and develop an interesting exhibit.”

White said she wants the exhibit to be flexible, to cover an expansive time frame, to be factually correct, but also fun and lighthearted.

“These are tough times,” she said. “We want to show a creative, whimsical Freeport, but from a serious, scholarly point of view.”

White said she would like to include stories about the Nordica Movie Theater and Bowling Alley, the Big Indian, the Desert of Maine, and the travelling vaudeville shows and circuses that used to visit the area. She said there should be a section about the “beloved Freeport baseball team” from the early 1900s, and would love to include artifacts associated with that time.

There could be a “History of Play,” she said, with collaboration from the Children’s Museum. It could include early board games, game pieces and a lost and found exhibit. She talked about Casco Castle, a resort built in South Freeport that had its own zoo and looked out over the water, and the time before television when people listened to their favorite radio shows.

“We could include so many stories,” White said. “We just need to hear from the public and collect them.”

The public is welcome to contact the Historical Society at the Harrington House, 45 Main St., Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., or Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. White’s e-mail is director@thefreeporthistoricalsociety.org, and the phone is 865-3170.

Amy Anderson can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 110 or aanderson@theforecaster.net