In a clearing, two red-brick chimneys top the peaked roof of a one-story building with weathered shingles and a stone foundation. The house's plain, unpainted wood-plank door and shutters remain closed. On the property, rustic stone walls cross the lawn. Shaded by nearby trees, an angled panel displays a wayside exhibit.
The exhibit's title, "Carroll Homestead," appears over an illustration of farm life approximately 200 years ago.
Text explains: "The Carroll Homestead represents a coastal Maine farm of the 1800s and the island's hard-working, self-sufficient, year-round residents. Four generations of the Carroll family lived on the 100-acre homestead and harvested food and firewood for their own use. The men cleared the land for the house, gardens, hay fields, and pastures, and worked as masons. The women and younger children tended the kitchen garden of pole beans, lettuce, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, and herbs while the older children helped with plowing, harvesting, and caring for livestock. Some of the Carroll women were schoolteachers."
In the illustration, one woman tosses grain from a bowl to a half-dozen chickens as another milks a cow. One man digs up potatoes in a furrow as another harvests apples. Two youngsters sit on the grass, playing patty-cake. A boy and a girl play a game, rolling wooden hoops.
A quote: "This place holds all the tears and laughter, the work and play of all who called this farm home." - Joan Jordan Grant, fifth generation member of the Carroll family, 2014
