Storrowton Village Museum – West Springfield, Massachusetts
The experience of stepping back in time is available when you are taking your Massachusetts vacation and visit the Storrowton Village Museum in West Springfield. Here you will be immersed into the 19th century with the 9 historical buildings assembled around a traditional Green. The buildings are such as our forefathers built on hills, crossroads and along the rivers in the area. Although the buildings come from different states and are of different periods of construction, together they form a typical New England Village. The village includes a Meeting House, Schoolhouse, general Store, Blacksmith Shop, Tavern, Law Office and historic homes.
The village was constructed between 1927 and 1931 when Mrs. Helen Storrow spent her own money to buy the buildings which had been abandoned or were scheduled for demolition and had them restored in the village.
Come and take a tour of Storrowton which offers an intimate look at Early American living. Climb the granite steps of the Meetinghouse, take a lesson in the one-room schoolhouse, stop in at the working blacksmith shop, and visit the farm house where aromas from open-hearth cooking still fill the air.
The Phillips House was built around 1767 and occupied by more than a dozen families over the years. The gambrel-roofed house is the oldest building in Storrowton Village. Sills and beams of oak were hand-hewn, partitions were reinforced with hand-spit laths, nails were hand-forged and each brick in the chimney and fireplaces was molded by hand.
The Meeting House was constructed in 1834. Members of four religious denominations combined their efforts to build the facility where each denomination (Methodist, Christian, Congregational and Universalist) could alternately use the pulpit. The Meeting House is used for re-enactments and there have been hundreds of weddings held there.
The Little Red Schoolhouse from 1810 contains authentic blackboards made of boards, plaster and black paint. It also has a tower that was adapted from a schoolhouse in Vergennes, Vermont, and added when the school was moved here.
Did you know that because of their farm chores, boys attended school half as often as girls and generally took tow years longer to complete their education? Children began school at age 3 and continued until age 16 for girls and 18 for boys.
The Blacksmith Shop was a critical part of any community. This one was built in 1850 of stone and cement. The shop has many tools the village smith needed over a hundred years ago. An enormous hand bellows and an old forge still operate here. There is also an ox sling, a huge frame of heavy beams used to confine an ox during the shoeing process. The shop is still in use today with a smith who repairs and fabricates hardware and creates reproduction cooking utensils for Museum programs. It sits "under the spreading Chestnut Tree."
The Potter Mansion was built in 1776. The owner was Captain John Potter who served as an officer in the Army during the Revolutionary War and was a survivor of Valley Forge. He did the whole thing by himself except for the plastering, even including making the nails, latches and hinges and all the elaborately ornamented wood.
The room to the right of the front entrance was used as his watch and clock-making shop. The house once boasted an outdoor clock with three dials that provided the time, days of the week and phases of the moon. It chimed quarter and half hour times and played 24 different tunes, one each hour. Dancing tunes were played on weekdays and religious tunes were played on Sundays. The clock was removed in the 1850s.
large room to the left of the main entrance has a huge fireplace with a brick bake oven and cabinets across the chimney. Blankets could be thrown across two cranes that swing out into the room to create a warm enclosure in front of the fire.
Upstairs, Potter created a large hall that was used for dancing and public gatherings. The "ballroom" has an arched ceiling and is ornamented with double dentil work.
The home was occupied by five generations of Potters until it passed out of the hands of the family in 1920.
Even in 1810 there was a need for law offices and The Eddy Law Office was built in the Federal Style and was the office of Zachariah Eddy. It isn’t a large building but the unique feature is that is has an arched, copper roof.
The Gilbert Farmstead from 1794 was one of the many farmhouses scattered over central Massachusetts where the boot and shoe industry had its beginning. Those living in the homes would peg boots during the winter in a room that was set aside for just that purpose. A huge chimney occupies the center of the house, and fireplaces open into most of the rooms to provide heat throughout the house.
Old Storrowton Tavern is comprised to two different antique buildings, the Atkinson Tavern built in 1789 and the Southwick Baptist Meeting House. Can’t you just imagine how thrilled the Baptists are with their heritage being used as a tavern?
Location: 1305 Memorial Ave., West Springfield, Massachusetts 01089
Phone: 413-205-5051
Email: Info@thebige.com
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