CANDIA — For three hours a month, six months a year, the Fitts Museum offers a glimpse into local history.

Open the third Saturday of the month from May to October — with private or group tours available by appointment anytime — the preserved colonial home on High Street displays tools, furniture, letters, art and other historical artifacts dating back as early as the 1600s.

Museum trustee Pat Larkin said attendance has increased since the museum changed its hours so it is now closed in the winter months.

“It's a pretty steady stream, especially the past couple years,” said museum trustee Pat Larkin during the 1 to 4 p.m. visiting hours Saturday.

Larkin said most visitors come out of an interest in general history, but some have specialized pursuits as well, such as a background in antique furniture.

“It's a constant learning experience,” she said. “We love it when people come in and can tell us something.”

Originally purchased by brothers J. Lane Fitts and James Hill Fitts in 1882, the building opened as a museum three years later.

In 1901, the Fitts family donated the building to house their museum and the collections of the Smyth Public Library. Though the library has since moved to its own property, some antique books remain.

“A lot of them seem to be fairly religious — various sermons and the like,” Larkin said of the mainly leather-bound books packed in glass cases at the back of the museum's tool room, which otherwise showcases hand-forged implements made centuries ago by a local blacksmith.

In addition to the tools, the museum has rooms featuring colonial cookware, musical instruments, textiles and memorabilia from the Revolutionary and Civil wars. Its focus is on Candia's history, with exhibits including a switchboard used for the town's phone lines until 1952 and supplies from the three shoemaking factories once located here.

When the Fitts brothers opened the museum in 1885, it had a different emphasis.

“At that time, museums were more about things that were collected around the world,” Larkin said. “There would be rattlesnake coils from the Midwest, shells people would bring back from trips to islands, things like that.”

Like the building itself, most of its contents were donated. It began with the Fitts brothers' original collections — curiosities like those snake coils and shells are still on display — but throughout the years, other Candia residents started donating items they came across.

One of the museum's more recent acquisitions is a 13-star American flag, accompanied by a note saying it was used in Abraham Lincoln's second presidential campaign in 1864. Unlike the common Betsy Ross 13-star flag, which displays the stars in a circle, this one has them in a grid.

“There's six and six, and one in the middle, so we still have to do some research on that flag,” Larkin said.

Though space is limited, Larkin said the museum trustees still accept donations to keep their collections evolving.

“A thing that a farmer would have used in Candia 20 years ago, 80 years from now will be history,” she said.

Arrangements to visit the Fitts Museum can be made online at fittsmuseum.org.

klannan@newstote.com