2022 Re-opening
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM OPENS FOR 2022 SEASON
After two summers of pandemic closure, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, a historic house dating to 1752 in Hadley, Massachusetts, re-opens to the public on Wednesday, June 1st, 2022 for its 73rd season. The Museum will be offering a new tour that tells a more complete story of the many different lives lived in this place, drawn from extensive research made possible by grant support from MassHumanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Guided tours will be available Saturday through Wednesday from 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. The museum is closed on Thursdays and Fridays. Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This land was cultivated by Nonotuck and other Indigenous people for millennia. It was claimed as common acreage by householders in the stockaded town of Hadley when the town was laid out in 1659. In 1752, Moses and Elizabeth Pitkin Porter erected a farmstead known as “Forty Acres” on the banks of the Connecticut River. Today, the Museum at “Forty Acres” uncovers life in rural New England over three centuries. The new guided tours introduce visitors to a wide range of individuals, from Quanquan, one of the Native leaders whose name is on the earliest Hadley deeds, to James Lincoln Huntington, who founded the museum. Some are members of the family who owned this property; others are people enslaved by them. The tour provides insight into the lives of domestic servants who lived in the house and raised their own families here, craftspeople who plied their trades here, and finally the family’s generation of “past keepers” who recreated this site as a museum. Through their words, spaces, and possessions, the Museum portrays the activities and diverse histories of the many people who lived and worked on this farmstead.
In the 18th century, “Forty Acres” was an important social and commercial link in local, regional and national cultural and economic networks. During the 19th century, the property became a rural retreat for descendants of the original owners. In the 20th century, family members preserved the site as an historic house museum. So many very different lives have unfolded on this ground; now in the 21st century the Museum strives to tell all their stories.
Go to the “Events” tab to view the various programs we will be holding this summer, and their times and dates.