07/17/2026
Join us this Friday, July 17, at 6 p.m. in China Village for a fun and educational event about local history!
EVENTS: China Village steps back into its past on July 17 history walk
by Eric W. Austin
For one remarkable evening this July, Main Street in China Village will double as a classroom.
The China Historical Society will lead a walking tour of the China Village Historic District on Friday, July 17, at 6 p.m., rain date Saturday, July 18. Walkers will gather at the China Village Post Office and wind their way through a corner of the village that was certified as a historic district by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1977 — past Main Street and Neck Road, along Canton and Peking streets, finishing at the China Baptist Church, where displays and old photographs will be on view in the church hall.
Parking is available at the Masonic Lodge lot (on the north side of Main Street) or at the China Baptist Church on Causeway Road. The event is free and open to the public.
Robin Adams Sabattus will host the walk, with four local experts serving as guides along the route. James Allen will speak on the Farnsworth House and other village buildings; Joyce and Dick Norton will share remembrances of China’s business district and earlier eras; Pastor Ron Morrell will recount the history of the China Baptist Church, which marks its 225th anniversary this year; and Nathan Sylvester will speak on the Washburn family and their service to the town.
The stops along the way carry more than local interest. The China Village Historic District encompasses 47 buildings across roughly 65 acres — a stretch of Main Street, the Neck Road down to the Brown Farm, back along Canton Street to the lake shore and north to Causeway Road, ending at the bridge. The nomination for historic status, though it carries no signatures, is well known to be the work of Eleanor and Bill Foster, drawing on Henry Kingsbury’s 1892 History of Kennebec County and the 1975 Bicentennial History of China, Maine by Marion Van Strien and Mary Grow.
Back at the church hall, attendees can linger over a slide show of “old” China Village photographs, including the village business district as it stood before the fire of 1961, and Main Street as it looked before the fire of 1911 claimed a row of homes there. Organizers describe the evening as a time for one-on-one conversation and remembrances as much as a formal tour.
Those with their own memories, photographs, or questions about China Village are welcome to bring them along. The walk begins at 6 p.m. on July 17 at the China Village Post Office.
For more on the China Historical Society, including upcoming events, visit the China Historical Society page or their new website at chinahistoricalsociety.org.
