This post is almost exactly a year old. It's been a hell of a year. Both good and bad and so much of it momentous. This is my second start of At Home With House Museums. So here's to a new year with abundant home touring and exploring history.
Taking a family vacation offers an opportunity to see house museums further from home. Our family vacation to coastal Maine offered an unusual number of homes to tour. But as this was our first trip to Maine, our attention was diverted and we sampled from the wide variety of activities and sights that the area offered.
We stayed in Harpswell, a cute little rural coastal community just outside of Brunswick. In Brunswick we were drawn to the partially restored home of Joshua L Chamberlain (1828-1914), a civil war hero, Bowdoin College president and Maine Governor. Sorry to say that the tour just didn't come to life for any of us. Could have been that it just dragged on too long or that there just wasn't enough there to feel it was a "home" to anyone or that little was said about the man or his family to bring them to life. Actually all that rings true.
One set of family pictures hanging on the wall did spark an interesting family discussion. The group of 8x10 photographs from the early 1900's showed a toddler - a girl I was sure. No it was a cute little boy in a dress with hair almost down to his shoulders. A little google research lead to an explanation. In the 1800's children were under the care solely of their mothers and in their early years were not subjected to "strict gender boundaries." Grant, Julia, 1953- A "Real Boy" and not a Sissy: Gender, Childhood, and Masculinity, 1890-1940 Journal of Social History - Volume 37, Number 4, Summer 2004, pp. 829-851.
The Skolfield-Whittier House just across the street and up the green a few blocks was decidedly more fun. The owners of this home verged on a compulsive hoarding disorder. The home is often "described as a time capsule with the complete possessions of three generations." And everything is labeled! The last resident, Dr Alice Whittier, was Maine's first pediatrician.The home is one half of a brick Italianate duplex built in 1858 by a ship captain for his 2 sons. Today the other half of the duplex is the Pejepscott Museum, a museum of local history.
What didn't we see? Well a lot. We drove up through New Hampshire where in Portsmouth there's an entire historic neighborhood, Strawberry Bank. But with the car loaded with vacation gear and an 8 hour trip we put off the stop for another time.
In Portland, Maine the Victorian Preservation Association website, www.vpa.org lists 4 historic house museums. That's too many to see in a day so I narrowed it down to the Victoria Mansion, an Italianate Villa. We were,however, lured to the many boutique shops and wonderful restaurants and didn't see any of the house museums. But based on a wonderful leisurely lunch I can highly recommend the Salt Exchange.
Next trip we'll not only stop in Strawberry Bank, NH and tour several homes in Portland but will also do the self-guided walking and driving tours of the city of Bath.
No comments:
Post a Comment