The Wiscasset Selectmen gave special recognition to the Musical Wonder House and to the Danilo Konvalinka collection of mechanical music treasures at their June 5 meeting.

Paulo Carvalho accepted the Business Recognition Award for the Musical Wonder House.

"I want to thank the town of Wiscasset for this recognition, and I would encourage everyone to come and visit our collection," Carvalho said. During the recognition Carvalho introduced Michael Everett, who has worked for the Musical Wonder House for 30 years, and Richard Earnest Delano who has been at the Musical Wonder House for 14 years.

Town manager Laurie Smith presented a brief history of the Musical Wonder House. On High Street in a classic 1852 home, the Wonder House is a show place for the Konvalinka collection of mechanical music treasures. Now internationally renowned, the museum was founded and first opened to the public in 1963 by Danilo Konvalinka. In keeping with Konvalinka's wishes, the museum is now part of a trust which enables its continued operation.

Every summer since 1963, thousands of travelers from near and far have paused to take a guided tour of the home and its treasures. During the visit they see and hear an ever-changing display of mechanical instruments, mostly from the 1800s through the 1920s, which delighted our ancestors with in-home music and entertainment long before electricity, radio or television were part of daily life.

The restored pieces are exhibited and demonstrated in rooms furnished with antiques of the Victorian era. Many folks will explore the central hallways with an impressive flying staircase and coin-operated musical antiques once common in public buildings, but now almost forgotten.

The Musical Wonder House is open from Memorial Day to Halloween, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.