Historic Deerfield facts for kids
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Old Deerfield Historic District
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Dwight House, Historic Deerfield
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| Location | Deerfield, Massachusetts |
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| Built | 1650 |
| Architect | Benjamin, Asher; et al. |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival, Federal |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000774 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHLD | October 9, 1960, see [1] |
Historic Deerfield is a special museum village in Deerfield, Massachusetts. It helps visitors understand the history of New England's old towns and countryside. The village of Old Deerfield is so important that it's been named a National Historic Landmark District. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Historic Deerfield shows what life was like long ago in the Connecticut River Valley. It has many old houses, museums, and programs. The museum also hosts the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, which is a gathering about New England's traditional culture.
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Exploring Historic Houses
Historic Deerfield has eleven old house museums you can visit. Most of these houses offer guided tours. There is also a modern museum and a visitors center. The museum often has special exhibits, fun family activities, and workshops. You can also find a gift shop. If you want to stay overnight, the Deerfield Inn is right there.
- Ashley House is a home built in 1734. It belonged to Deerfield's minister from the 1700s. You can see furniture from wealthy families and old English dishes.
- Allen House was also built in 1734. Later, it became the home of Henry and Helen Flynt. They were the people who started Historic Deerfield. The house shows their personal collection of old American items. You can visit it by making a special plan.
- Stebbins House is a brick house from 1799. It belonged to Asa Stebbins. This house shows off fancy decorations from the Federal period (1790 to 1830). A cool part is the French wallpaper. It shows scenes from Captain Cook's famous sea voyages. You can explore this house on your own.
- Barnard Tavern was an inn built in 1795. It is currently being fixed up and will open again in the future.
- Dwight House was built around 1754 in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was moved to Deerfield in 1950 to save it from being torn down. This house now shows how people did old jobs and crafts.
- Frary House is a home from about 1750. It shows how Miss C. Alice Baker lived in the 1890s. She fixed up the house in 1892. You can see old New England items, special needlework, and baskets. The house also highlights Miss Baker's role in bringing back old styles in Deerfield.
- Hall Tavern Visitor Center was first built around 1785 in Charlemont, Massachusetts. A large room for dancing was added around 1815. The building was moved to Deerfield and is now where visitors start their tour.
- Sheldon House was built in 1754–55. It shows what life was like from 1780 to 1810. You can explore this house on your own.
- Wells-Thorn House is a house from 1747. It has rooms that show different time periods and ways of living from 1725 to the 1850s.
- Williams House was built around 1730 and was greatly updated in 1817. This house has furniture and decorations in the Federal style.
- Flynt Center of Early New England Life is a modern museum. It has changing exhibits about history, old crafts, and decorative arts.
How Historic Deerfield Started
Historic Deerfield was started by Henry and Helen Flynt. They visited Deerfield in 1936 because their son went to Deerfield Academy. The museum was first called "The Heritage Foundation." After Henry Flynt passed away in 1970, its name was changed to Historic Deerfield.
Deerfield's Location
Historic Deerfield is located on a street that is about a mile long. This street is very old, going back 330 years. It is next to the Deerfield River in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts.
Deerfield's Past
Long ago, before Europeans arrived, the Pocumtuck people lived in the area now called Deerfield. The town was later given as land to people from Dedham, Massachusetts. They had given land to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to help settle Christianized Native Americans.
For many years, Deerfield was a frontier village in New England. This means it was on the edge of settled areas. It was briefly left empty during King Philip's War in the 1670s. In the 1690s, during King William's War, French soldiers and Native American groups attacked it.
During Queen Anne's War, the village faced a big attack known as the Raid on Deerfield. Forty percent of the people living there were taken prisoner. French soldiers and their allies, including Abenaki and Mohawk warriors, broke through the village's fence. They killed many settlers and took over 100 people captive. Before leaving for Canada, they burned the village.
Most of the people who survived the attack and the long walk to Canada were eventually set free. They returned to New England. However, Eunice Williams, who was captured at age eight, was adopted by a Mohawk family. She became fully part of their culture. She married a Mohawk man and had a family with him. She chose not to return to New England. She visited her family in New England a few times later in her life.
Deerfield recovered from the raid. Over time, settlers moved further north and west. They started new towns in what is now Vermont and New Hampshire.
Special Art from Deerfield
The town of Deerfield is known for a special kind of needlework called the "White Dove" school. These needlework samplers were popular from 1790 to 1830. They are named for the white doves sewn with black outlines. These samplers also usually had baskets of fruits and flowers, often shaped like a pyramid. This design was placed below an alphabet or a verse, with a border on three sides.
Many of these works from 1798 to 1826 look very similar. This suggests that the girls who made them learned from the same teacher. However, no one knows who this teacher was or where they taught.
A famous example of the White Dove style was made by a girl named Esther Slate in 1824. She was ten years old. Her sampler has three alphabets in four rows. The first two are in cursive, and the third is in block letters. The sampler has a green vine border on three sides and a triangle pattern at the bottom. Below the alphabets, Esther sewed a garden scene. It has a blue house in the middle, with two trees on each side, and a white picket fence. Under the fence, the two white doves with black outlines stand with their wings spread. The picture is mostly the same on both sides. On the left, birds sit on sunflowers, and there's an elephant and a monkey. On the right, there's a fruit tree and two of the popular white dove style fruit baskets.
Even though the teacher is unknown, the surviving White Dove samplers were made by children from important families in the area. Many of these pieces are now part of the Historic Deerfield collection. Another example is the sampler made by Katy Bernard in 1793.
Searching the Collections
You can search for items in Historic Deerfield's collections online. They are part of a database kept by the Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield.
See also
- Borden Base Line
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Franklin County, Massachusetts
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
Images for kids
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Dwight House
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Barnard Tavern
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The Deerfield Inn
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Old Main Street
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Esther Slate's White Dove Sewing Sampler, 1824
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Katy Bernard's White Dove Sewing Sampler, 1793
