The series this last year has centered on our village’s treasures , our churches, our schools, the General Store, Fletcher Memorial Library, the Little River Grange, and the stately homes which reflect historical and architectural times, from colonial New England to the Victorian era, and have served as residences for ministers and a governor, as year round small farms and summer homes. One of these houses might not be as grand as some of its neighbors, but its importance is in its contents.
The Burnham-Hibbard House is our town’s museum. With the exception of a few donated period pieces, the museum displays items exclusively from Hampton, such as the original Town Clerk’s desk, or with some connection to Hampton. As such, it serves as “Hampton’s Attic.” It is a virtual treasure trove of history, and of generosity.
Our earliest records show that the empty lot where the museum is situated was purchased in 1834 by Charles C. Button. Born in 1788 and admitted as a “freeman” in Hampton in 1814, Mr. Button was a prominent citizen and business man in town. In 1835, Thomas Neff, Jr. built a house on the property for Mr. Button to rent to tenants. Button himself lived in the home across from the Congregational Church which we know as “the parsonage”, remaining in Hampton for the rest of his life and passing away in 1877. The property was rented, and then owned, by Hampton native Joel Searles and his wife Lydia Flint, whose money was principally used to purchase it, from 1853 to 1882. Mr. Searles practiced his trade as a harness maker here, the small building in back of the museum serving as his shop. After the couple’s death, the property passed to their heirs from 1882 to 1897.
Significant changes to the house occurred during the ensuing years and ownership of the Burnham family, starting with Mary Estelle Burnham who owned the property from 1897 to1904. Her estate passed to William H. Burnham, who owned the property from 1904 to 1918. In 1912, the addition on the south side of the house was built to accommodate a dining room for the boarders, the residence serving as a boarding house year round and particularly during the era of “the summer colony”, when Hampton was a summer destination for wealthy families living in cities like Hartford and Providence. Many of the “summer” homes were on Main Street, with its easy access to Bigelow Lake and its recreational activities. The more modest Burnham home housed folks less affluent than the summer visitors who could afford to say at the Chelsea Inn, teachers, for example, and those who worked for the wealthy families.
The property was owned by Mary A. McMahon from 1918 to1945 and by Mildred Burnham Hibbard from 1945 to1974, when she donated it to the Hampton Antiquarian and Historical Society.
The Society itself was organized in 1967 with charter members to include almost everyone in town – Burr, Curry, Davis, Estabrooks, Fuller, Halbach, Loew, Moon, Ostby, Rodriguez, Stone, Teale – the list of members represent the surnames of some of the town’s “founding fathers”, families who still live here, and many people we remember. With the acquisition of the Burnham Hibbard House, the Society was able to expand its mission: “…to bring together those people interested in history, and especially in the history of the Hampton area; to discover and collect any material which may help to establish and illustrate the history of the area, its exploration, settlement, development, and activities in peace and in war; its progress in population, wealth, education, arts, science, agriculture, manufacturing, trade and transportation; to provide for the preservation of such material and for its accessibility, as far as may be feasible, to all who wish to examine and study it…”
The Burnham Hibbard House is a Sturbridge-Village style display. The original home was small and modest. The front room, which serves as an entrance for visitors, would have been the kitchen as evidenced by its fireplace. The walls are beautifully stenciled, based on a design at the Arkell’s house, often referred to as the Jaworski’s, and for the oldest generation, the Burnham’s. The stencil design in this dark red colonial at 131 Main Street represents the right period for the Burnham-Hibbard house. The stenciling could have been the work of an itinerant artist who was boarding there. The southwest room at the rear now presents as a “modern” kitchen with a wood-burning cast iron stove and stone sink, and a pantry with crockery and china.
The two downstairs rooms on the north side of the house represent a parlor, where Mark and Bev Davis serenade visitors at Christmas time, and a bedroom with a rope bed and a quilted banner which was stitched to commemorate the nation’s bi-centennial celebration in 1976. Artist Pat Donahue created the picture of the Pearl Farm on the Little River, and her mother, Alice Dino, selected the material, piecing the cloth together with Jeanne Kavanagh, who transported it to individuals and quilting groups over the course of the year it took to complete; their signatures are embroidered on the back. The banner was part of our 4th of July parade and the State parade, and was displayed at the Willimantic Textile Museum before returning “home”.
The addition on the south was recently redecorated to reflect more accurately the period and its use. Originally displayed as a formal, Victorian parlor, replete with dark, brocade curtains, it has been refurbished to represent its probable appearance in 1912, simple and informal: this is where the boarders dined. Sunday morning breakfast, for example, consisted of “codfish balls and maple syrup”.
The upstairs rooms, which were originally the boarders’ small bedrooms, now contain displays of period clothing and children’s school books and toys. One room is dedicated to paintings of Hampton artists, and the staircase and hallway are lined with old photographs of Hampton and a glass case displaying different exhibits. At Christmas time, for example, the case has contained antique and vintage bells, ornaments, and Santa Clauses on loan from Hampton neighbors. Christmas trees decorated by residents once graced the museum during its annual Open House; now Santa comes to visit every year.
Exhibits are not limited to the house. The building which we commonly call “the barn” was actually a carriage house and home to two horses. It is now used to display “domestic industries” — farm equipment, a broom making machine, a threshing machine, spinning wheels, and a recent treasure, a two-hundred-year-old loom, generously donated by Peggy Fox’s daughters, Dorothy and Carolyn. Relocating it required a community effort, and the Society has photographs documenting every step of the process. The loom was originally assembled inside the attic of the home. Stan Crawford and Peter Witkowski painstakingly disassembled the loom, which was held together with wooden pegs instead of nails. Vernon King , Noah Copp and Eric Martin carried it down the narrow staircase, and Stan, Peter, Jo Freeman and Sue Hochstetter put the loom together again in the carriage house.
Both the carriage house and the museum will be open on Memorial Day from 11:30AM to 2PM with curators present. Please visit. Take a moment in our commemorations of veterans and those who lost their lives at war, to step into another facet of Hampton’s past, another example of community, to appreciate the generosity, in the items and the efforts, of our neighbors in their preservations and gifts to us.