About Main Street Museum
The Main Street Museum in White River Junction collects the kinds of objects that more conventional museums might struggle to categorize. Its former firehouse is filled with artifacts, natural specimens, obsolete devices, local history, peculiar memorabilia, taxidermy, postcards, and collections whose main connection is that somebody thought they were worth saving.
The museum opened in 1992 and later moved into its current Bridge Street building. One of its largest holdings is a collection of approximately 10,000 piano rolls, enough mechanical music to overwhelm most ordinary archives before the stranger material even begins.
Elsewhere, displays mix everyday history with objects that become unusual through context and accumulation. The museum’s own description emphasizes an eclectic approach rather than a narrow subject, allowing material from different eras and categories to sit beside one another in unexpected combinations.
The result feels less like a museum designed from a master checklist and more like decades of curiosity given a permanent address. Tours are generally arranged by appointment, with additional public events held at the museum. Visitors expecting a single theme may discover that the lack of one is the entire point.