Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum Opens for 2013 Season

The rooms in the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum remain as they were arranged by members of the family to accommodate the procession of folks who crossed the house’s threshold. From farmers and businessmen, to religious leaders and social workers, to servants and slaves, the stories of many men, women, and children spanning 250 years of American History are told within the house.

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, an historic house museum dating to 1752 in Hadley, MA opens today (Wednesday, May 15) for its 64th season, and will continue their summer music engagement series, Wednesday Folk Traditions and A Perfect Spot of Tea this summer.

Known as Forty Acres, the museum is an 18th-century farm on the banks of the Connecticut River that today interprets life in rural New England over three centuries. Through the words, spaces and possessions of the women and men who lived there, the Museum portrays the activities of a prosperous and productive 18th-century farmstead.

Members of this household along with numerous artisans, servants and slaves made “Forty Acres” an important social and commercial link in local, regional and national cultural and economic networks. Through the 19th century the generations transformed the estate into a rural retreat. In the 20th-century the house was preserved as a museum by family members and now contains the possessions of six generations of this extended family.

Programs this summer include the thirty-second season of Wednesday Folk Traditions,  featuring some of New England’s finest ethnic folk music ensembles. Performances will be held Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm starting June 12 with weekly performances through July 31, 2013

A Perfect Spot of Tea will be held each Saturday, July 6 through August 31 with seating at 2:30pmand 3:30pm. on the museum’s back veranda. Local musicians will perform while guests sip tea and taste pastries donated by local restaurants.

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive, Hadley MA on Route 47 just two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47 North in Hadley. Guided tours will be available Saturday through Wednesday from 1:00 to 4:30 pm. The museum is closed on Thursdays and Fridays. Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children. For information concerning tours or special events, phone 413-584-4699 or check the museum web site: www.pphmuseum.org .

– Submitted by Susan J. Lisk