The Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vt., almost defies description. It is certainly not what you’d expect in the traditional sense of a “museum.”
Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960) was a pioneering collector of American folk art. It also seemed she had a bit of trouble saying “no” to interesting things that came her way, including buildings and other even larger structures!
The Shelburne Museum’s 45 acres contain 39 buildings, 25 of which are historic buildings that were rescued and relocated from elsewhere in New England. A sampling of the structure you will find here include a covered bridge, a meeting house, a barn, a jail, and a steamboat.
A stagecoach inn, c 1787, which houses the American folk art collection — and, oh, what’s that in the background? Just a relocated covered bridge.
Honestly, the collection is crazy (in a good way), and they are still expanding/collecting. Thinking about the effort and expense of moving these buildings is mind-boggling — especially considering that the museum opened in 1947 when the tools to accomplish these moves were not what they are today!
I had read that people spend many hours there, but Doug and I are usually rather quick at museums so I wasn’t sure how much time to allot.
This 1845 covered bridge is 168 feet long. As Mrs. Webb was watching the re-assembly, a farmer happened by and asked “Do you know this Mrs. Webb?” “Yes” she replied, “very well.” “Crazy, ain’t she?” he asked. I have to agree. Another local wag suggested that it would be easier to simply fill in the pond than construct a covered bridge over it!
In the end we spent five hours on the grounds, skipping quite a bit of collections that were not of particular interest to us.
Some of the structures serve as exhibits in and of themselves, but other buildings were repurposed to serve as homes for collections related or unrelated to the buildings’ original purposes.
There are a total of 150,000 objects in the collection, and it felt like we might have seen 50,000 of them. One unexpected bonus for me (not for Doug) was the beautiful landscaping throughout –– so many flowers!
Without further ado, I present just a sampling of what we saw over three posts.
Much of this 1901 round barn was disassembled to be relocated here, but the 9,000 pound upper segment of the silo was flown across the state by helicopter and lowered into place.
The round barn houses the horse-drawn vehicle exhibit, with nearly 200 examples of sleighs, stagecoaches, and commercial wagons. This 1852 Abbot-Downing Company Coach was the greyhound of its day.
The still-functioning Herschell-Spillman carousel, traveling model, circa 1920.
Of course we took a spin on the vintage carousel!
Inside the Circus Building was a deconstructed Gustav Dentzel Carousel Company carousel, circa 1902. Seeing the pieces of the carousel spread out on display turned them into works of art. Above is the music box.
The various carousel figures were lined up one after another stretching on and on through the Circus Building.
Roy Arnold spent 25 years carving these amazingly intricate Circus Parade pieces, which eventually stretched to 525 feet! It was stretched out in the Circus Building opposite the deconstructed carousel, above.
The pieces were carved on a 1 inch to 1 foot scale, and recreates the pomp and pageantry of the procession that heralded the circus’ arrival in town. Can you see the snake den inside?!
The interior of the Grand Isle rail car was very richly decorated!
No. 220, built in 1915, became known as the locomotive of the Presidents because it pulled special trains carrying Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Behind it is the private rail car Grand Isle (1890).
Another glimpse inside the Grand Isle rail car.
The Ticonderoga is the the last walking beam side-wheel passenger steamer in existence.
The 220-foot steamboat Ticonderoga, built in 1906 (also the cover photo on this post). Mrs. Webb didn’t want to tell her husband she was buying a steamboat, but when the call came in, he was sitting right there! So she asked the caller to ask her a question — “Can I buy her?” he asked — to which she could simply reply “yes” with her husband being none-the-wiser. When he finally learned of her purchase he was unfazed, saying “I think a lot of the other stuff you bought is much worse.”
The steamboat made a daily circuit of Lake Champlain, and was not designed for overnight transportation. It was richly decorated nonetheless.
Though passengers did not travel overnight, they could rent overnight cabins while the ship was docked so that they could arrive by train late in the day and be on board when the ship set sail in the morning.
It might have been a short day trip, but luxury dining was still on order on the ship!
You can see the side-wheel in this picture. We did a guided tour of the ship, where we went all over the boat, including seeing how the wheel helped power the boat.
An 1871 Lighthouse that originally sat at Lake Champlain’s Colchester Reef between Vermont and New York.
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