STRATTON — The members of the Dead River Historical Society have received a grant of $3,300 from the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust, to replace two rotted sills, clapboards and sheathing on the west and southwest side of the museum building.

The building was built as a church in 1878. In 1963 an annex was added onto the church from a building given for Sunday School classes. Many valuable exhibits are in this portion of the museum, which is sinking into the ground. Thanks to this grant the museum restoration project will be finished by June when it opens for the 2014 season.

The Dead River Area Historical Society is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and promote interest in the history of the Dead River Area, which includes Dead River Plantation, Flagstaff Village, Coplin Plantation and Eustis/Stratton.

Collections from 1850 on include artifacts, manuscripts, photographs, old carpentry and logging tools, china, glass, church organ, furniture from native families, a complete schoolroom, a memorial exhibit to the “lost” towns of Flagstaff and Dead River Plantation, the lineage of several native families, and a host of memorabilia from native homesteads.

The Dead River Area Historical Society is open every weekend during July and August from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The rest of the year it is open by appointment as well as for Polar Blast in February.