Sayre Historical Society opens for 2025 season with an exhibit on Milltown

The Sayre Historical Society, located at 103 South Lehigh Ave. in Sayre, opened on Saturday, May 3, for the 2025 season. The museum will be open on Wednesdays from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Special tours can be arranged for the off-hours of the museum.

The society has introduced a new rotating exhibit this year in the Ken Bracken Rotating Exhibit Room. The exhibit is all about “Milltown.” The decision to build an exhibit around this topic was made because Milltown is the oldest area in the Borough of Sayre and was one of the earliest places settled in Bradford County after the Revolutionary War.

In 2026 the United States will celebrate its semi-sesquicentennial. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania established a committee to plan for the 250th anniversary several years ago, and the America250PA Bradford County Committee has asked all of the county historical societies to plan events around this historical year. The Sayre Historical Society chose Milltown and will keep this exhibit up until the end of the anniversary year.

Milltown encompasses all of the area over the bridge at Springs Corners, plus the area of Spring Street north to the Dandy Mini Market. The Spring Street area contained many businesses over the years, some of which date back to the beginning of the area. Did you know that there was a cold storage plant and creamery there, and they produced Sayreco Ice Cream? There was also a factory that made engraving machines and a butter packaging factory.

The exhibit contains more than 20 storyboards and displays about Milltown that include maps, photographs, and stories. There are beautiful photographs of Curtis Falls and the old swinging foot bridge and the covered bridge, baseball teams from Springs Corners, plus an amazing piece of memorabilia from a store that opened in Milltown in 1911 that sold fishing supplies and tobacco.

The society has kept a display case in the exhibit room empty so that if local residents have an artifact or history of Milltown that they wish to share, it can be displayed readily in the available case.

For more information, visit the Sayre Historical Society on Facebook or call (570) 882-8221.