The Genesee Country Village & Museum (GCV&M),
located on 700 acres in Mumford, just celebrated its 40th
anniversary. It is the third largest living history museum in the US, with
costumed interpreters, a nature center with educational
programs, and the John L. Wehle Art Gallery, which houses a
nationally-recognized collection of sporting and wildlife art and the Susan
Greene Collection of 3000 pieces of 19th-century men’s, women’s, and
children’s clothing that are displayed on a rotating basis.
The visionary Jack Wehle, of Genesee Brewing Company
fame, was the founder of the GCV&M, and he worked with architectural
historian Stuart Bolger to collect local examples of 19th century
architectural significance. Buildings were moved, often meticulously dismantled
and reassembled, to create the village, which now contains 68 structures (on an
average summer day, 22 buildings are staffed with interpreters).
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| Livingston-Backus |
The first
building they obtained was a log cabin in Scottsville: Hetchler House (now part
of the Pioneer Farmstead). The second was a Quaker Meeting House, and there’s
even a house from the city of Rochester: the Livingston-Backus house that once
graced Corn Hill. While the GCV&M is no longer adding buildings to the
site, the structures require constant maintenance, and they are currently in
the process of restoring the Octagon House (the long-neglected Hyde House, from
Friendship, in Allegany County).
The GCV&M hosts school tours and summer camps (an
“earth camp” as well as a “history camp”), and recently partnered with RIT and
Pictometry (a Rochester company that captures aerial images) to provide a site
for drone training! While the museum is generally only open to the public from
May to October, there are 20 special events and theme days scheduled throughout
the year.
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| knowing where your food comes from... |
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| mmm - chocolate! |
Charlie and I took his nephew and his two little girls to Preparing
for the Holidays on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Our first stop was the
Pioneer Farm, with its chickens, roosters, herd of sheep, and two oxen, and
where we had just (thankfully!) missed the demonstration of historic hog
butchering, but heard and saw how the meat is preserved. We also saw
demonstrations of beer-making in the brewery, lard-rendering at the Jones Farm,
and chocolate-making at the Thomson Tavern. We learned two interesting facts at
the Tinsmith Shop – that Monroe County was once the wheat-growing breadbasket
of America, and that the sanitary, lead-free tin can was invented in Fairport.
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| the tin man... |
Other upcoming events include Breakfast with St. Nick,
Yuletide in the Country (with tours and special dining opportunities), a Maple
Sugar Festival in March, and an Antiques Show in April. I have always wanted to
attend Laura Ingalls Wilder Days in August (Ma Ingalls was the special guest this
past summer, and I’m pretty sure that Mary made an appearance in the past few
years). Their Civil War reenactment is the largest in the Northeast, regularly
attracting more than 800 participants, and there is a waiting list to join the
event.
You can also book an afternoon tea party in the Hosmer Inn,
or dine there on one of their scheduled dinner evenings. There is too much to
see and experience in one visit, so Charlie and I have already scheduled to
return for Yuletide in the Country, and I’m going to make sure I’m around in
August for Laura Ingalls Wilder Days! I’m thinking it would also be fun to put
together a tea party…
For more information, visit their website: https://www.gcv.org
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