PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM WILL BE CLOSED FOR ITS 2020 71st SEASON

PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM 

WILL BE CLOSED FOR ITS 2020 71st SEASON 

      HADLEY – The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, a historic house museum dating to 1752 in Hadley Massachusetts determined that it will not open, or hold public programming for its 71st season due to the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic. After doing historical research into past pandemics in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is clear that the impact of Covid 19 will be with us for a long time. Until there is an effective vaccine the Museum will be closed for all tours, Wednesday Folk Traditions, “A Perfect Spot of Tea”, Corn Barn exhibits, Community Days, and the many other programs held at this historic site.  

With the shut down of the Museum’s programming, we hope to continue encouraging historical understanding with the PPH collections and research through our website and social media. We are fortunate to have several new summer interns that will be cataloguing recent collections, organizing archival papers, and working with proper distancing. They will be updating the website and Facebook with their research and findings throughout the summer, and look forward to introducing themselves and their interests with a bio on Facebook. Without the Museum’s programs that bring community engagement and critical financial support for all of the operations of the PPH Museum, we hope all will go to our website to learn more about the museum’s collections and the important research our Museum Interns do each season. 

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is also the Way-Point Center for the National Connecticut River Scenic Byway. The Museum hosts a panel exhibit on the natural history of the Valley, the Museum’s history, and sites along the by-way for travelers. While this interpretive center is closed along with the Museum, a trail system beginning at the Museum and traversing the farm fields along the river and to the old buggy path to the top of Mount Warner, where the family grazed their cattle in the 18th century, remains open. This trail system was created with the help of the PVPC and cooperation from several organizations and land owners including TTOR, the Nature Conservancy, Kestrel Trust and the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation. The Museum asks that any users practice regular social distancing and carry masks in case they encounter others on the trail. Parking is best at the Museum on the outer circle where there are Please Park Here signs.

The Wednesday Folk Traditions concerts and Teas were all scheduled and programmed with a great list of performers representing the best in folk traditions across our broad cultural roots. Grants were in place from our local and state agencies and business support letters, and Foundation Grants had been sent to our generous regional sponsors. Many businesses have responded with support. However, we are concerned about all our local restaurants, farm family supporters, florists, and small grocers who donate to the teas. They need your help! Please find our 2019 Tea donor list and celebrate their past support of PPH in whatever way you can.

Given this shutdown we also hope to highlight the musicians that had agreed to perform at PPH this summer. Performances of each will be linked on our website and Facebook the week they were scheduled to perform. We hope we can successfully do this with their support and our limited technology. These are artists that could use your support too, so please see if they have albums you can purchase from them directly, or share their work on social media!  

We appreciate everyone’s support during this time, and while the house will be closed, supporters can donate to keep the museum going until next season through the museum’s website, www.pphmuseum.org.

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The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, known as Forty Acres, 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 here, 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. 

    The rooms in the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum remain as they were arranged by members of the family to accommodate the procession of relatives, neighbors, community leaders and workers 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   House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

  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.  For information concerning tours or special events, phone (413) 584-4699 or check the museum website: www.pphmuseum.org .

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