One does not have to travel to Manchester, the Seacoast or Boston to experience a museum. Goffstown has its own museum, but not too many people in town know it exists.

“They don’t realize that it is here,” said Eleanor Porritt, the curator.

The catch is that the museum is open only a few weekends this summer, since it is staffed entirely by volunteers.

The openings are scheduled for July 19 and 20 and Aug. 16 and 17. Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays are 1 to 4 p.m.

Coffee and doughnuts will be served in the mornings, with punch and cookies in the afternoon.

There is no charge for touring the museum, but the Historical Society welcomes donations and also runs a small gift shop.

The museum is located at 18 Parker Station Road off North Mast Road, in what used to be known as the J.M. and D.A. Parker Depot Store before 1878. That year, it moved the store to Goffstown Village, becoming an institution in a bustling downtown that was connected to Manchester by trolley in 1900.

A century ago, Goffstown was a destination for Manchester residents who wanted to spend their summers at homes and resorts by the Uncanoonuc Mountains and Glen Lake.

Glamour may be a thing of the past in Goffstown, but its history is unmistakably alive in the museum, where Porritt and her fellow volunteers maintain five display rooms, a garden and a one-room schoolhouse, with plenty of attractions for visitors of all ages.

One of the more popular draws for children is a room where all the large tools and implements used to cut ice in the days before electric refrigerators are on display. Many of the items belonged to the father and grandfather of Barbara Mace, an assistant curator. On the walls are several black-and-white photographs of her family, including one of her father lugging a 260- pound cake of ice on his back.

Every item in the museum has a direct link to Goffstown, and most were donated by families that go back many generations in the town. That means everyone in Goffstown will find a connection with something inside – whether it be the photograph of Sully’s Superette when it was a facility for the Knights of Pythias, or the gargoyles from the roof of the Villa Augustina School.

“This is their museum,” Mace said. “This represents the memories of the town.”

Next to the ice room is another kid favorite, an approximately 30-foot long model train set built in the 1950s by Goffstown resident Gardner Lamson, who donated it after his son lost interest in it. The Historical Society acquired the set several years ago. It has been reconstructed and refurbished by the Bedford Boomers.

Every summer, the Historical Society rotates different items through its display cases and sets up a new exhibit in the largest of its public rooms. This summer, the exhibit features rows of tables – each one devoted to a block of Goffstown Village, with pictures of how the area has evolved.

Several other rooms, or sections of them, are devoted to specific themes. On the second floor, one corner has the trappings of three doctor offices from past generations.

The museum recently added a skeleton that had been donated from a professor at Saint Anselm College. The skeleton had originally been at the Hillsborough County Nursing Home on Mast Road, in the days when it was a general hospital. “Mr. Bones has come home,” Mace said.

A second room on the upper floor has a wall with antique music players, including 1924 Victrola and 1913 Edison phonographs. Nearby, a glass case has a number of antique lanterns. One burned lard.

“In the old days, they didn’t get rid of anything,” said Carole Huxel, a volunteer. “They used every scrap of everything.”

One of the oldest items in the museum is a powder horn handmade by Alexander Cuningham at West Point in 1780. Recent history is included as well – one other military-related item is the dress jacket worn at West Point by a female cadet from Goffstown.

The school did not begin accepting women until 1976.

Huxel said the Historical Society is hoping to make its documents and other records part of the curriculum for Goffstown schools, especially in the fourth grade, when local history is studied, and the 11th grade, where American history is a focus.

The Historical Society acquired the museum in 1974, but members continue to find previously undiscovered treasures among their archives. In the process of digging up material for the village exhibit, Porritt came across an enigmatic paper slip from the Aaron Colby tailoring business, which was located in “Goffstown (Plain), N.H.” Porritt was intrigued.

“Where is ‘Goffstown Fancy’ as opposed to ‘Goffstown Plain’?” she asked.