Some friends have been throwing mini music festivals every week or so at Simonton Corner Grange. I grew up attending contra dances (a kind of folk dance) with my mom and her hippie friends at this very Grange throughout the 80’s. Not a whole lot has changed; the place still has an outhouse with twin thrones.

There are A LOT of Grange halls in Maine and today, I finally dug around to find out the history of these buildings.

The earliest Grange types of groups can be traced back to the 1850’s as a place for Farmer’s Clubs to discuss agriculture and other issues. Officially, the Grange (also known as the Patrons of Husbandry) arrived in Maine in 1873, six years after it was organized in Washington, DC. There was massive growth and by 1907, with 419 Granges and a membership of 55,212, Maine’s per capita grange membership was larger than any other state.

Grange Orders took on a number of community responsibilities:

• offered insurance
• advocated railroad and banking regulation
• promoted group purchasing
• supported prohibition
• advocated for Free Rural Delivery
• advocated for strong local schools
• increased funding for the University of Maine
• associated with the Farm Bureau, Extension Service, 4-H clubs
• curbed monopolies

The list goes on and on.

As a point of interest, from the beginning of the Order, women had equal membership and voting rights as men. A more complete history can be read here.

Over the past 40 years or so the number of functioning Granges has dropped off considerably. There are approximately 180 Maine Granges still functioning with about 8,000 members.

I’m unclear whether or not Simonton Corner is actually still functions with a Grange membership (for some reason I don’t think so) or if it has evolved into purely a function hall for community events. What I do know is that contra dances still occur at Simonton Corner Grange on the 4th Saturday of every month.

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