One of the oldest homes in New England!
One of the best things about living in the DC area is that I’m not too far away from where I grew up, making going home for the holidays nice and easy. Jessi and I got to spend our first Thanksgiving together at my parent’s house, doing all the typical Thanksgiving things (including my now traditional Indian pudding!), going Toys for Tots shopping (my favorite holiday tradition!) and stopping by one of the oldest homes in America for their annual post-Thanksgiving event.
You know, as you do when you’re a historian. Or married to one.
Accompanying us were Jane Collier, a girl from 1614 Jamestown, Virginia who has appeared on the blog many times before, and Fear Tyler, a new friend from 1692 Salem Village (modern day Danvers), Massachusetts. As American Girl seems to be deviating from making pre-20th Century characters, I’ve started to slowly take matters into my own hands and create a couple from periods of history I find personally interesting that the company is unlikely to cover themselves. As Jane and Fear have strong connections to the early colonization of North America and the crazy Puritans, they seemed like good travel companions to check out a historic house museum that holds a special place in my heart.
You know, as you do when you’re a historian. Or married to one.
Accompanying us were Jane Collier, a girl from 1614 Jamestown, Virginia who has appeared on the blog many times before, and Fear Tyler, a new friend from 1692 Salem Village (modern day Danvers), Massachusetts. As American Girl seems to be deviating from making pre-20th Century characters, I’ve started to slowly take matters into my own hands and create a couple from periods of history I find personally interesting that the company is unlikely to cover themselves. As Jane and Fear have strong connections to the early colonization of North America and the crazy Puritans, they seemed like good travel companions to check out a historic house museum that holds a special place in my heart.
The Henry Whitfield House is a stone house in Guilford, Connecticut that was constructed in 1639, just before the town was officially settled. It was built as a home for Henry Whitfield, the minister of the community and the guy represented in this nice bronze statue outside the museum’s visitor center. In addition to serving as his family’s house, members of the community met here for worship before the first church was constructed and for town meetings. It also served as a rest stop for travelers going between New Haven and Saybrook colonies, and could also be used as a defensive fort in case the colony came under attack. Menunkatuck Indians aided settlers in the construction of the house, which took a very long time to complete as they had started too late in the season to get everything done before winter came.
Henry Whitfield recruited 25 other Puritan families from England to settle in modern Connecticut to escape religious persecution. He remained in the Guilford colony for many years, acting as the minister and community leader, but eventually returned to England, leaving behind his wife and most of his children. No one is certain why he decided to leave, but it could have to do with changing opinions of Puritans back in the mother country. The house was passed between various owners and remodeled in the 1860’s before finally being purchased by the state of Connecticut in 1900. It was first opened to the public as a museum a year earlier, and was the first State Museum in Connecticut.
Why does this place hold a special place in my heart? I grew up in Guilford! One day, I’d like to feature the two other historic homes I used to intern at, which really kick started my career in the museum world.
The museum has been hosting their Harvesting History event for several years now, and it’s a nice excuse to get out of the house and soak up some of the local history with the grandkids or nieces and nephews, or spouses from the literal other side of the planet. The museum was bustling with activity when we arrived, and people definitely seemed eager to try some of the historically inspired food available for sampling. The spread included pumpkin pie, corn bread, sunflower seeds, popcorn, and apple cider.
There was a station set up to try writing with a quill pen. Fear got to supervise as Jessi gave it a try.
Next to the visitor’s center was a small exhibit discussing different holiday traditions, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Halloween. The Halloween display included an interesting discussion of Guilford’s connections to the Salem Witch Trials, which was a perhaps unsettling discovery for Fear. It turns out one of Henry Whitfield’s granddaughters was tried as a witch during the hysteria, and was possibly targeted because she was a mentally ill women who had been abandoned by her husband and had several children to raise. After the trials, she sadly lost custody of her children and was institutionalized.
I had never heard of this connection before visiting the museum this time, and was very interested to see a record exists of what she said during her trial.
Next stop, the house itself!
Upon first entering, you step into an exhibit discussing the history of the house and the land it was built on, with a lot of attention given to how it was eventually turned into a museum, renovated, and preserved. One of the coolest artifacts in this section is a scale model of the house. I love scale models, especially when they’re apparently just for fun art projects constructed by a local citizen decades ago.
The rest of the house is a fairly traditional historic house museum. The kitchen is kitted out with examples of cookware and furniture typical of a home from the 1600’s through the 1700’s or so, although the museum is quick to point out that as this is a museum, the stuff you’re seeing here isn’t really representative of what the house looked like when people actually lived here. No one family would have owned this much stuff in 1639, and while most of the artifacts do have Connecticut and even Guilford roots, you’re not taking a tour through the Whitfield family attic.
Well, the contents of the attic, anyway.
The museum also has handy booklets to help you identify and learn more about the artifacts in the kitchen, which is really helpful for visitors because tours through the home are generally self guided.
Also, the lighting in here was pretty incredible for photos, a rarity in any historic house… or my own apartment!
As part of Harvesting History, a costumed interpreter was on site with lots of different artifacts to discuss with people, including animal pelts that would have been used for trade, medicinal herbs, weaponry, and fabric samples to show what clothing during the period would have looked and felt like.
Unlike many costumed interpreters, he wasn’t portraying a specific character and spoke to visitors as a modern man giving historical perspective and information. I like meeting interpreters who are portraying specific people or at least pretending they’re really in 1639, but it’s also fun having the opportunity to talk a little more openly with an interpreter. I think sometimes people are intimidated by talking to a “character” in ways they aren’t when it’s just a person wearing a period costume.
There are two upper floors to explore at the Whitfield House. The first focuses largely on how the home would have been used by the family living in it, including bedrooms and a study for Henry Whitfield himself, complete with books he would have used to inspire his sermons. One of the little kids we were touring the house alongside was scandalized to discover that colonial children only had a single doll to play with based on the display in one of the bedrooms focusing on childhood in early America.
Two of the rooms had fun little interactives for kids too, including a model rope bed with a key that shows you where the phrase “sleep tight” comes from and a window with little wooden blocks to create a scene of early Guilford.
The real window provided a nice little nook for a picture.
The upper floor is the attic, and I like how the museum has made it the space for things in its collections that don’t quite fit into the first or second floors. Very attic-y! There are examples of different materials used to produce textiles like spinning wheels and looms, alongside some period clothing, and several display cases highlighting the history of early Guilford at war, with artifacts from King Philip’s War, the Pequot War, the French and Indian (Seven Years) War, the American Revolution and the War of 1812.
Included in the collection is a powder horn that might have belonged to Benedict Arnold, who was not from Guilford, but grew up in Connecticut.
It was a little chilly outside, but Fear and Jane took some time to walk along the grounds of the property while the sun was still out.
This might not be Mount Vernon, but there’s something really cool about having a house this old in your literal backyard. It was great having the opportunity to explore it with my wife and get out and do something a little different on our Thanksgiving weekend home, and I hoped you’ve enjoyed this peek into the oldest home in Connecticut.
Lots of museums are open the day after Thanksgiving, and often run special programs to mark the holiday or kick off the winter holiday season. Next year, keep an eye out to see if you’ve got a neat local event to check out!
Henry Whitfield recruited 25 other Puritan families from England to settle in modern Connecticut to escape religious persecution. He remained in the Guilford colony for many years, acting as the minister and community leader, but eventually returned to England, leaving behind his wife and most of his children. No one is certain why he decided to leave, but it could have to do with changing opinions of Puritans back in the mother country. The house was passed between various owners and remodeled in the 1860’s before finally being purchased by the state of Connecticut in 1900. It was first opened to the public as a museum a year earlier, and was the first State Museum in Connecticut.
Why does this place hold a special place in my heart? I grew up in Guilford! One day, I’d like to feature the two other historic homes I used to intern at, which really kick started my career in the museum world.
The museum has been hosting their Harvesting History event for several years now, and it’s a nice excuse to get out of the house and soak up some of the local history with the grandkids or nieces and nephews, or spouses from the literal other side of the planet. The museum was bustling with activity when we arrived, and people definitely seemed eager to try some of the historically inspired food available for sampling. The spread included pumpkin pie, corn bread, sunflower seeds, popcorn, and apple cider.
There was a station set up to try writing with a quill pen. Fear got to supervise as Jessi gave it a try.
Next to the visitor’s center was a small exhibit discussing different holiday traditions, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Halloween. The Halloween display included an interesting discussion of Guilford’s connections to the Salem Witch Trials, which was a perhaps unsettling discovery for Fear. It turns out one of Henry Whitfield’s granddaughters was tried as a witch during the hysteria, and was possibly targeted because she was a mentally ill women who had been abandoned by her husband and had several children to raise. After the trials, she sadly lost custody of her children and was institutionalized.
I had never heard of this connection before visiting the museum this time, and was very interested to see a record exists of what she said during her trial.
Next stop, the house itself!
The rest of the house is a fairly traditional historic house museum. The kitchen is kitted out with examples of cookware and furniture typical of a home from the 1600’s through the 1700’s or so, although the museum is quick to point out that as this is a museum, the stuff you’re seeing here isn’t really representative of what the house looked like when people actually lived here. No one family would have owned this much stuff in 1639, and while most of the artifacts do have Connecticut and even Guilford roots, you’re not taking a tour through the Whitfield family attic.
Well, the contents of the attic, anyway.
The museum also has handy booklets to help you identify and learn more about the artifacts in the kitchen, which is really helpful for visitors because tours through the home are generally self guided.
Also, the lighting in here was pretty incredible for photos, a rarity in any historic house… or my own apartment!
As part of Harvesting History, a costumed interpreter was on site with lots of different artifacts to discuss with people, including animal pelts that would have been used for trade, medicinal herbs, weaponry, and fabric samples to show what clothing during the period would have looked and felt like.
Unlike many costumed interpreters, he wasn’t portraying a specific character and spoke to visitors as a modern man giving historical perspective and information. I like meeting interpreters who are portraying specific people or at least pretending they’re really in 1639, but it’s also fun having the opportunity to talk a little more openly with an interpreter. I think sometimes people are intimidated by talking to a “character” in ways they aren’t when it’s just a person wearing a period costume.
Two of the rooms had fun little interactives for kids too, including a model rope bed with a key that shows you where the phrase “sleep tight” comes from and a window with little wooden blocks to create a scene of early Guilford.
The real window provided a nice little nook for a picture.
Included in the collection is a powder horn that might have belonged to Benedict Arnold, who was not from Guilford, but grew up in Connecticut.
It was a little chilly outside, but Fear and Jane took some time to walk along the grounds of the property while the sun was still out.
This might not be Mount Vernon, but there’s something really cool about having a house this old in your literal backyard. It was great having the opportunity to explore it with my wife and get out and do something a little different on our Thanksgiving weekend home, and I hoped you’ve enjoyed this peek into the oldest home in Connecticut.
Lots of museums are open the day after Thanksgiving, and often run special programs to mark the holiday or kick off the winter holiday season. Next year, keep an eye out to see if you’ve got a neat local event to check out!
Goodbye for now, Guilford!
I always love seeing your field trip posts, but it's especially brilliant when the dolls are able to interact with the exhibits the way they were here! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! It was a lot of fun to get them outside in the sun again. :)
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