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Guiding Guests to Early Guilford Days Family Festival

After 23 years spent sharing The Henry Whitfield State Museum with guests, museum curator Michelle Parrish has plenty of interesting information to offer. Right now, she’s also guiding guests to a great opportunity: to come out and enjoy Early Guilford Days Family Festival, taking place at all five historic Guilford museums Saturday, July 29, and Sunday, July 30.

Now entering its fourth year, the festival brings each museum to life with unique experiences and expert talks or demonstrations at each site. Guests will get a gander at activities including tin-smithing, blacksmithing, wool spinning, weaving, hearth cooking, timber hewing, and more. There are also some time-honored activities to give guests firsthand experience of life in early Guilford, such as stenciling, paper cutting, weaving, whittling, and even doing laundry.

If this sounds a lot like the fun and living history Guilford’s 4th-graders experience annually with Early Guilford Days (at Hyland House Museum and its Boston Street neighbor, the Thomas Griswold House Museum), there’s a very good reason, says Michelle.

“The idea for the family festival came from Early Guilford Days. We wanted to expand that, and also include all of the museums and include the whole family,” she explains. “So now everyone can try out these different activities and see demonstrations.”

As a group, the five sites—and the four organizations that run them—team up as Historic Guilford Museums to plan, promote and pull off Guilford Early Days Family Festival each year. Michelle and Henry Whitfield State Museum Head Curator Michael McBride work for the State of Connecticut’s Historic Preservation Office and are happy to lend their professional expertise to the group, which also includes representatives from each of the three local non-profits overseeing the town’s other historic museums: the Dudley Foundation (Dudley Farm), Guilford Keeping Society (Thomas Griswold House and Medad Stone Tavern) and Dorothy Whitfield Historic Society (Hyland House).

“All five sites work together. We have a joint brochure, and we do joint programming,” says Michelle, who is also helping the group by adding photos and other news about the upcoming festival on Facebook at Henry Whitfield State Museum.

Guests can get started by purchasing a ticket at any one of the five historic museums during the festival, and traveling from one to the next at their leisure. The special event includes special pricing—admission to all five museums, for both days, is covered by one $10 ticket—and both days are free for children aged 12 and younger.

“So if you can’t get to all of us in one day, we offer the next day, too,” says Michelle. “It’s a hugely discounted rate. All of us are having special activities going on, so just that alone is incentive to come visit.”

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 29 and 30, all five museums will be set up to share traditional activities, craft demonstrations, and sales as well as museum tours and other unique experiences. According to information supplied by Early Guilford Days, The Henry Whitfield State Museum will offer craft demonstrations and sales, including wool spinning by Janice Steinhagen of Griswold on Saturday, 17th-century reproduction furniture by Paul Rulli Reproductions of Woodstock on Sunday, and tinsmithing by Lance Kozikowski of Coventry on both days. The Hyland House Museum will have hearth cooking (Saturday only), herb gardening, fabric dying, and storytelling. The Thomas Griswold House Museum will present blacksmithing and weaving both days. The Medad Stone Tavern Museum will offer stenciling, paper cutting, and games each day. The Dudley Farm Museum will let you try your hand at doing laundry, weaving, whittling, and timber hewing.

A Branford resident who hails from the Hartford area, Michelle’s career as a curator began at museums at the state capital, including her work with Connecticut Historical Society and at the Old State House. Since 1994, Michelle has been lucky enough to make The Henry Whitfield House Museum her second home. She says Guilford is a treasure trove of early American history.

“To have five historic museums in one town is tremendous,” says Michelle, adding that Guilford’s wealth of early New England architecture is furthered by supportive historic preservation groups providing research, outreach, and even historic walking tours of the Town Green. It all combines to make Guilford a true destination for those with a fascination for New England’s early days.

“It’s really exploding right now,” says Michelle of the many efforts to highlight Guilford’s historic attributes.

Within that framework, each of the five museums draw fans of history from points across the map. Michelle says people who live in Guilford are encouraged to come out and appreciate these remarkable sites that exist in their town.

“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had people come in and say, ‘I lived here for 30 years and I’ve never been here.’ They feel guilty about it! I tell them, ‘You’re here now, and that’s the important thing.’ When it’s in your backyard, you think, I’ll get to it someday—and then go off to see the Statue of Liberty or something else,” she says, laughing.

But for those who follow Colonial history, Guilford is on the must-see list, she adds.

“We get tourists from all over,” says Michelle. “We know they come to The Henry Whitfield State Museum to see New England’s oldest stone house, and Connecticut’s oldest house of any type. So it does draw people from all over the world, who know this—even though a lot of people in Connecticut don’t know it.”

Built in 1639, the Whitfield House is situated on pristine museum grounds that also include a visitors’ center with special exhibits and a barn/demonstration area at 248 Old Whitfield Street.

The Hyland House, built in 1713, is a classic saltbox at 84 Boston Street, with a herb garden that helps spice up the home’s active hearth cooking demonstrations. The notable red house is one of the earliest house museums in New England. A few steps away is the Thomas Griswold House Museum, at 171 Boston Street, built circa 1774 and recognized as one of the best examples of local architecture of the period. The grounds include a blacksmith shop and several other outbuildings.

The 1803 Medad Stone Tavern at 197 Three Mile Course invites guests to tour its 14-room, 10-fireplace tavern and play games on the gracious grounds, while the Dudley Farm Museum at 2351 Durham Road in North Guilford will open the gates to its 1844 farm house and late 19th- to early 20th-century farm with gardens, sheep, chickens, and oxen to visit. Picnic tables welcome families to picnic during the event.

Guilford Early Days Family Festival takes place Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at all five historic Guilford museums. Festival tickets are $10 for adults (one price/ticket covers all five sites for both days) and free to children 12 and under.