The Folkway closed its doors for good nearly 15 years ago, but the fond memories residents have for Peterborough’s venerable music venue have been slow to fade.

Starting at the end of next month, the Peterborough Historical Society will be holding an exhibition on the Folkway, but a part of that exhibition starts this Friday — a concert series featuring many of the folk stars that graced The Folkway’s stage.

According to Jim Van Valkenburg, vice president of the Peterborough Historical Society Board, the idea for the concert series sprang from a recent concert at the Nelson Town Hall, featuring Lui Collins and several other regulars at The Folkway.

“There was this wonderful feeling that everyone in the audience had,” Van Valkenburg says. “Our thought was we ought to have a concert as well.”

In possession of The Folkway’s famous blue-and-white tapestry and tables and chairs from the original Folkway, the Historical Society will do its best to recreate the atmosphere in its space, but Van Valkenburg says this will be difficult to accomplish.

“It was a unique space,” Van Valkenburg says. “We’ll try to recreate it with some plants, but as somebody came into The Folkway, they would have this feeling. That’s going to be more than we can be asked to do. When it comes to the history and the elements of the place, we will do our best to bring that into focus.”

The Folkway opened in 1975, owned and operated by Jonathan Hall and his wife Widdie Iselin. Hall explains that he and his wife had always wanted to open a coffeehouse-like music setting that would serve food.

According to Hall, The Folkway got a lot of unintentional publicity for improperly putting up a sign and going before the zoning board.

“We had no restaurant experience,” Hall says. “We were doing lunches and having local musicians to start. Then before we knew it, we had customers and they were happy. People began attending the coffeehouses, the audiences were good and word got around.”

Van Valkenburg says that The Folkway was a major reason he decided to settle down in Peterborough, where he still lives.

“The Folkway was important to people,” Van Valkenburg says. “It was a cultural place with good music and good food. For me, it was always about the music and a wonderful place to go. About 90 percent of the people I’ve talked to agree with me. We miss it.”

The idea behind the concert series is to revisit that era of Peterborough, which drew several people to the area for good. It also drew several national level performers.

“It was a stopping point,” Van Valkenburg says. “It was not the same as Aerosmith, but there was a circuit that people would go on. They would come to Boston and then they would have to come to The Folkway.”

Hall and Iselin began with local acts, then the venue attracted musicians from farther and farther away. After a few years, the pair got a divorce, and Iselin ran The Folkway on her own until 1988, when she died of breast cancer. The Folkway reopened in 1990 as a nonprofit organization, but closed a second time in 1996, when operating costs became too great.

Many performers are included in the concert series. Claudia Schmidt will be kicking off the series Friday before the exhibition opens, then Lui Collins and Dave Mallet will perform on Feb. 27 as an opening reception to the Historical Society exhibit.

For more information on the exhibit or concert series, visit www.peterboroughhistory.org or call 924-3235.