Shelburne Museum

Westport, NY - Events of Thursday, July 25, 2013

There were a couple of things we wanted to see while we were in the area that were located across Lake Champlian in Shelburne, VT. The straight line distance was about 17 miles, but Lake Champlain is a long lake (150 miles), and the nearest place to cross was a bridge located over 17 miles to the south of the campground. The drive to Shelburne took over an hour with the winding roads and numerous small towns along the way.

The Lake Champlain Bridge crosses a narrow part of the lake. It was built in 2011 replacing an older bridge from 1929.

Lake Champlain Bridge

At the bridge on the New York side is the Crown Point Lighthouse. The 55-foot lighthouse, which was first lit in 1859, was converted in 1910 to a memorial to Samuel de Champlain who was the first European to see the lake in 1609. The Memorial Lighthouse has 8 granite columns and a decorative granite cornice in place of the original, limestone tower.

Crown Point Memorial Lighthouse

Our first stop in Shelburne was the Shelburne Museum, which was founded in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb. Electra Webb was a pioneer collector of 18th and 19th century Americana, American fine art and American folk art. Most of the buildings on the 46-acre museum grounds are old buildings that were moved from other sites in New England and were restored and preserved. They are used to display Electra Webb's extensive collections of decoys, glassware, ceramics, miniatures, furniture, pewter, scrimshaw, dolls and toys, metalwork and much more.

We started our tour of the museum with the big, red, round barn that sits right inside the entrance to the museum grounds. It was built in 1901 in Passumpsic, VT about 30 or 40 miles from the museum.

Round barn

The barn is 80' in diameter, and the main floor had stanchions for 60 dairy cows. The cows faced inward toward a feed trough where they could be fed hay from the loft above. Manure dropped through trap doors to the basement where the farmer could load it onto his manure spreader.

In the barn there is a video that shows how the barn was dismantled and moved to the museum site in 1986. As we watched the video, we realized the other couple that was watching it with us were the people who had donated the barn to the museum. They had their grandkids with them, and the couple was explaining the details of how the barn was moved. How cool to get to listen in on a narration by the previous owners of the barn!

The barn is now used to house a collection of carriages and coaches on the middle floor and sleighs in the basement.

Concord coach in the round barn

Surrey with fringe on top

One of the sleighs from the collection in the basement

Near the barn is a U-shaped building that contains a collection of carousel horses and a miniature circus parade. Outside is a garden of - you guessed it - daylilies. There are 36 different varieties and a total of over 1,700 daylilies.

1,700 daylilies outside the circus building

Carousel horses with decorative carousel panels on the wall

The miniature circus parade contains nearly 4,000 individual pieces and was made from 1935 to 1955. It has a scale of 1 inch equals 1 foot and is over 500 feet long - the equivalent of over a mile at full size.

Wagon and team of horses from the 500-foot miniature circus parade

From the circus building we headed to the 1880 railroad station from Shelburne, VT.

1880 Shelburne, VT railroad station

Also on display at the station is Locomotive 220, a 4-6-0 coal-fired, steam locomotive that was used to pull both freight and passenger trains. The locomotive was known as the "Locomotive of the Presidents" because it was used on special trains carrying Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

The museum also has a private rail car that was presented as a gift to the Governor of Vermont in 1890. Electra's father-in-law was the president of the rail car company that built the car and presented it to the governor.

A few of the buildings at the museum are not historic buildings, but have been constructed on-site to provide places to display collections that don't exactly fit anywhere else. Such is the case of Beach Lodge and Beach Gallery. These buildings, which were named in honor of William and Marie Beach who were long-time hunting companions of Electra Webb, are built from logs to resemble an Adirondack hunting camp. The buildings are used to display hunting trophies, wood carvings and Adirondack-inspired furniture.

Alaskan brown bears are among the many hunting trophies on display.

The 220-foot, side-wheel steamboat Ticonderoga is also part of the museum. You can visit all four decks and see the bridge, the passenger lounge, the crew's quarters, the dining room and the engine room. The Ticonderoga was built in 1906 and was used as an excursion boat, a showboat and a floating casino. She was used to carry passengers primarily on day trips between various scheduled stops up and down Lake Champlain. She is set up to look the way she did in 1923, which was the peak of prosperity for steamboats on Lake Champlain.

Steamship Ticonderoga

Margery in the dining room of the Ticonderoga

Since we're on the subject of boats and Lake Champlain, the Colchester Reef Lighthouse has also been relocated to Shelburne Museum from a location in Lake Champlain about 10 miles north of Shelburne. First lit in 1871, the lighthouse was replaced by an electric beacon and was decommissioned in 1933. It was damaged by ice and weather over the years, and was finally sold at auction in 1952 for $50 after which it was scheduled to be dismantled for timbers. When Electra Webb found out about the lighthouse, she bought it from the new buyers for $1700 plus replacement lumber. The lighthouse was moved to the museum and restored.

Colchester Reef Lighthouse

After Electra Webb died in 1960, her children constructed the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building. It is built in the Greek-revival style, and it houses her collection of impressionist paintings.

Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building

Electra Webb wanted her paintings to be exhibited in a home-like setting rather than in a sterile gallery, so her children brought furnishings from Electra's New York City apartment on Park Avenue and replicated six rooms from her apartment as part of the memorial.

View of the inside the memorial with paintings displayed in a home-like setting

Attractive gardens are scattered around the grounds. It didn't take us long to find one.

One of several attractive gardens at the museum

The Prentis House was built in 1773 in Hadley, MA and was relocated to the museum in 1955. It is filled with 17th and 18th century antiques.

Prentis House built in 1773

Parlor of the Prentis House

Dining room of the Prentis House

There was a lot more to see at the Shelburne Museum. It took us over 4 hours to cover the 46 acres. Part way through, we needed to take a break and sit a few minutes because our legs and feet were starting to hurt from all the walking. We'll continue our tour of the Shelburne Museum in our next post.

Comments

[Janice L Evans]

wow. . .that is the most beautiful lighthouse I have ever seen. . .I love architecture!

[Marsha Weaver]

What a cool Lighthouse. It is totally different than any we saw along the west coast.

Love the idea of a barn for a museum. When we visited the windmill museum, it was in a barn. Adds so much to the experience. They now built a "new-up-to-date" building. Too modern for the windmill theme.

WOW...how neat to be with the people who donated the barn. You got a first-hand account of the process.

What a super collection. The sled is marvelous.

I would be on a daylily high there.

The Shelburne Museum is wonderful. There is so much at one location. So far my favorite is the Prentis House. How beautiful. I can't believe there is more to this place.

What a fabulous day of sightseeing.

[Bob and Jo]

Great lighthouse and what a huge complex is the Shelburne museum.