We went to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, this week, with Mr. Tom, my 3 boys, my sister and Nana & Grandpa. It was a lovely day and we meandered around.
Old Sturbridge Village is a living museum. It is a prototype of a New England Village in Massachusetts somewhere between the years 1790 to 1840. It's like going through a time machine! Many of the buildings are appropriately ancient and were moved to this location. Others are new and built on site but in a manner appropriate to the time period. (Think nails made by their own smithy.) There are people in historic garb in all of the houses who share a bit about what life was like for the people who lived there as they go about some of those historic people's work.
I might as well get the sad news over with, right away. We missed the lilacs and apple trees and most of the tulips had passed and the Great House was closed for renovations. Also, my camera is seriously on the fritz (just trust me, it is!). Never fear for us, though, there was plenty to amaze us and fun to be had!
The Great House
The Great House's Barn
We were in between anything interesting happening in the garden, too, but it's "bones" were still lovely!
We peeked in the windows!
Happily, the parsonage was open
The official state church was Congregational. There were, also, Quaker churches. (This is an interesting point in history - you had to pay taxes to the congregational church, whether you belonged to it or not. The poor Baptists, for example! There was a definite need for separation of church and state to preserve freedom of religion. Maybe, I shouldn't even bring the subject up....)
Apparently, not much has changed for the pastor and his wife for a couple hundred years. Oh! Except, Tom was signed up to be pastor for an indefinite amount of time (he's been pastor here for 17 years, now). A Pastor at that time was only signed up for a year. If he didn't make any waves or irritate the wrong people, he might be signed up for another. I think that a lot of pastors were migratory at that time, although, I am sure that some pastors and their towns were a match made in heaven.
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They had beautiful china and blue flow ware!
The historic wallpaper everywhere was gloriously pretty!
The pastor's library and a meeting room.
chairs in the narthex of the church.
Also, I got to go shopping!
Pretend shopping, that is.
This beautiful and historic wallpaper was behind all of the wares on the shelves.
The fabrics were historic too. The fashion, then, was, the more patterns piled together, the better! Oh! Take me back! This sounds perfect to me!
My sister and I, also, had fun discussing the possibilities for trimming a hat!
(It made my mind fly across the Atlantic to England at that time and a certain Bennett family.)
Yes, life was so refined back then!
(er, click photo to enlarge, if ye dare!)
I have more to share in a few days - a few photos of soldiers' paraphernalia and antique glass and the farmhouse. We didn't miss all of the new life in the barnyard!
Love,
Katy Noelle
