Old Sturbridge Village
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) is a living museum located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, in the United States, which re-creates life in rural New England during the 1790s through 1830s (the Romantic Period). It is the largest living museum in New England, covering more than 200 acres (80 hectares).
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[edit] History
[edit] Before the village
Prior to European colonization, the Nipmuck people inhabited the Quinnebaug region of which OSV is a part.
In the early nineteenth century, the land on which Old Sturbridge Village now stands was a farm owned by David Wight. The farm included a sawmill, gristmill, and a millpond which survives to this day.
[edit] Inception
George Washington Wells had started a small spectacle shop in Southbridge, Massachusetts in the 1840s which became the American Optical Company.
His three sons -- Channing M, Albert B ("AB"), and J Cheney Wells -- followed him into the business, which continued to expand.
On one rainy day in 1926, AB began to shop for antiques, or as he called them, "my primitives."
Influenced by their brother, Cheney began collecting early American timepieces and Channing began collecting fine furniture.
By the early 1930s AB had more than 45 rooms full of antiques in his Southbridge home. It became clear his collection had grown beyond a single man's hobby.
In 1935 AB, along with his brothers, family members and associates, formed the Wells Historical Museum. The Museum was given title to the various collections and charged with the care and exhibition of the artifacts.
In July 1936 the Museum's trustees met to determine the how the collections would best be presented to the public. AB wanted to create a small cluster of buildings in a horseshoe around a common. His son George B immediately poked holes in the plan. Instead, George proposed "a revolutionary idea."
As AB later said of George, "He pointed out that the historical value of the things I'd been collecting was tremendous, provided that it could be put to proper usage... He suggested that to make this material valuable it would be necessary to have a village, a live village, one with different shops operating... it was essential to have water power."
J. Cheney Wells quickly pledged his clocks and other items to AB's and to help "in every way I can to develop a village along the lines that George suggests."
It is thought that various members of the family had visited European folk museums, of which the most famous was Skansen outside of Stockholm, Sweden. It is likely that these living museums were the genesis for what was to become Old Sturbridge Village.
Within a week of the meeting, the Museum had purchased David Wight's farm and within a few months hired Malcolm Watkins as the museum's first curator. Architect Arthur Shurcliff was called in to help them lay out a suitable country landscape.
By 1941, the Fitch House, the Miner Grant Store and the Richardson House (now the Parsonage) were on the common and the Gristmill was in operation.
After a pause for World War II, Ruth Wells, George B.'s wife, became Acting Director of the Village. In 1946, Quinnebaug Village became Old Sturbridge Village and it opened on June 8.
[edit] The early years
[edit] Word of mouth
Attendance climbed, mostly through word of mouth and in a 1950 article in The Saturday Evening Post OSV was featured as, "The Town That Wants to be Out of Date."
[edit] Adding buildings
By 1988, OSV had acquired the Meetinghouse from the Fiskdale neighborhood of Sturbridge, the Salem Towne House from Charlton, the Fenno House, the Friends Meetinghouse, the Pliny Freeman House, the Printing Office, and the District School.
[edit] The hurricane
On August 18, 1955, Hurricane Diane arrived unexpectedly. It was the worst storm in decades. Gale-force winds and a torrential downpour created flood waters that broke dams in surrounding towns and flooded the Village.
Fifteen staff members were stranded by the rising waters. The Freeman Farmhouse was flooded and the Covered Bridge was swept off its foundation. Helicopters kept staff members supplied for three days until the waters receded. The damage was estimated to be $250,000.00 in 1955 dollars. With great effort, Village employees managed to re-open the Village in just nine days.
[edit] OSV today
In response to declining attendance, shrinking endowments and rising operating costs, OSV has changed its presentation of history. Gone are the "movie set" displays with a fixed range of dialog. In their place, interpreters engage visitors in a more personal and interactive process, encouraging them to actively participate.
The museum has continued to add interactive exhibits such as a wintertime ice rink, baseball games and, anachronistically, a Christmastime celebration. (Puritanical New Englanders did not begin celebrating Christmas until much later in the 1800s.)
As of March 2004 OSV has entered into a partnership with the New England Heritage Breeds Conservancy (NEHBC) designed to raise public awareness of historical breeds of livestock and sustainable agriculture in New England. Visitors to the museum can see a broader range of livestock breeds and learn about roles they played in New England’s past. Along with public access to the historical animals, a long-term goal of the collaboration is to increase populations through breeding.
[edit] Structures and exhibits
Old Sturbridge Village is comprised of over 40 structures, including both restored buildings purchased and relocated from across New England and some authentic reconstructions.
The village is divided into three main sections. The Center Village represents the center of town, with the town green as its focal point. Countryside is just that, outlying farms and shops. The Mill Neighborhood features various commercial structures which rely upon a millpond for their power.
[edit] Center Village
The Center Village contains the following structures:
- Friends Meetinghouse - a meetinghouse of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers
- Center Meetinghouse - churches often served as a location for town meetings, elections, lectures, and political events
- Tin Shop - tin, purchased from England was used to make a variety of household goods
- Salem Towne House - a prosperous farmer's home
- Law Office - a small, free-standing office of a lawyer
- Parsonage - the home of a Congregational minister and his family
- Asa Knight Store - a country store
- Thompson Bank - a bank, that was originally located in Thompson, CT, that is on exhibit at Old Sturbridge.
- Fenno House - an historic house with exhibits that highlight domestic textile production
- Fitch House - the residence with exhibit elements that highlight children and family life.
- Printing Office
- Cider Mill - a horse-powered mill for the production of hard cider
- Shoe Shop - an historic ten footer, which was a small backyard shop structure built in the 18th and 19th centuries in New England to serve as a shoemaker's shop. The name came from the fact that it was usually 10 feet (3.0 m) by 10 feet (3.0 m) in area. The ten footers were forerunners of the large shoe factories that developed in New England later in the 19th century.[1]
- Town Pound - for the confinement of livestock wandering around town or on other farmer's property
- Bullard Tavern - an early 1800s tavern room.
- Small House - a small home based on those of less affluent families, people of color, newlyweds, and renters.
- The Stage Coach - On May 23rd, 2008, a stage coach marked "Hartford & Worcester" started making trips through Center Village. Guests can ride in the stagecoach for $5 per rider.
 A loom found in the Fenno House. |
 The stagecoach that makes trips around Center Village. |
 The Meeting House. |
 The Small House. |
[edit] The Countryside
The Countryside features the following structures
- Freeman Farm - A typical New England farm of 70 acres or so, with barn, outbuildings, and fields.
- Blacksmith Shop - a shop where farm implements and other hardware were made and repaired and horses and oxen were shod.
- Bixby House - the home of the blacksmith
- Cooper Shop - many farmers had part-time trades such as coopering - making wooden barrels, buckets, and pails.
- Pottery Shop - New England potters made utilitarian items such as Redware milkpans, mugs, crocks, flowerpots, and mixing bowls out of local clay.
- District School - a typical publicly funded one-room school
- Covered Bridge - Covered bridges extended the longevity of wooden bridges in the harsh New England weather.
 The Blacksmith Shop |
 The Covered Bridge, with the horse-drawn wagon coming through |
[edit] The Mill Neighborhood
Mill Neighborhood features the following structures:
- Gristmill -uses water power to turn a 3,000-pound millstone for grinding grain
- Sawmill - a working replica of an "up-and-down" sawmill powered by a reaction-type waterwheel
- Carding Mill - a water driven facility to prepare wool for spinning
[edit] Collections
Old Sturbridge Village has several buildings devoted to displaying their assorted collections of early American antiques.
- Firearms - Collection includes many displays featuring firearms from colonial America through the post-Civil War era.
- Glass - Displays in this collection are broken into three distinct categories, blown glass, molded glass, and pressed glass.
- Lighting Devices - Displays of early lighting devices from ancient oil lamps and candles to whale oil, camphene, and argand lamps.
- Herb Garden - A living collection of native and heirloom varieties of ornamental plants and those used for cooking, medicine, dying cloth, and making traditional crafts.
[edit] Scenes from Interactive Exhibits
 Food preparation demonstration in an early 19th century kitchen |
 A potter produces handmade goods on an old-fashioned wheel |
 A shopkeeper displays typical early 1800s goods |
 A woman demonstrates spinning wool into yarn |
 Lawyer in the pre-Civil War law office |
 A tinsmith demonstrates how tinware was produced |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Hunter, Ethel A., The Ten-Footers of New England in Parks, Roger, editor, The New England Galaxy: The best of 20 years from Old Sturbridge Village, Chester Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 1980, pp. 134-139, ISBN 0-87106-040-X
[edit] External links
