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Weathervane Newsletter Summer 1999
Making History for Northampton
Historic Northampton enters a new era as it prepares for the next century. A major buildings and grounds program that preserves and showcases our historic buildings, grounds and collections at their best is nearing completion. This program embraces three major areas: historic building restoration, landscaping and grounds, and museum construction and installation.
The centerpiece of this project is our new museum facility. Our real strength lies in the depth and breadth of our collections, yet we have heretofore had no permanent exhibit space to display them adequately. We are reconfiguring our education center into a well designed, flexible, museum facility with permanent installations on Northampton history and adequate space for rotating exhibits and moderate-size meetings. A Place Called Paradise will be the theme exhibit for our permanent installation, chronicling Northampton history from the pre-contact era to the present. The exhibit will include objects and artifacts, fine art, photographs, costumes, textiles and manuscripts from the entire range of our collection.
Major restoration work will enhance our historic structures. Our four historic buildings, all located on their original sites, comprise a collection of architectural history from the early Colonial era to the Federal period. These buildings have been extensively researched and surveyed by teams of consultants and preservationists from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. The SPNEA studies included core samples and spectroanalysis to determine original paint colors. As a result, The Damon house (1813), the Parsons' house (1730) and the Shepherd house and barn (1796) will be restored and painted to SPNEA specifications. In addition, the original Federal Period balustrade will be restored around the roof of the Damon house.
Historic Northampton's campus of 2 1/2 acres is part of the original Parsons' homelot, laid out in 1654. Much of the grounds, heretofore, have been underutilized. Part of our buildings and grounds project includes landscaping that will preserve the historic integrity of the grounds, nurture the historic plantings in place and enhance the setting of the museum complex in a harmonious way. A serpentine brick walk will connect the main museum area to the rear parking lot and to the display area and retail space in the Shepherd barn. A Goshen stone terrace, part of the original Damon extension plan, will extend from the portico of museum area, providing an outdoor gathering space. A Victorian summer house will provide a focal point and outdoor performance space at the far end of the grounds. Additionally, period fencing, researched from 19th century photographs, will extend from the Damon house, along the frontage of the Parsons' and Shepherd house and from there to the barn at the rear of the property.
The Shepherd barn will provide additional exhibit areas and retail space. It will house a display of antique signage, farm implements and tools as well as provide a site for a museum gift shop and visitors information center.
Our new facilities will be ready to usher in the new millennium. In this way we will ensure that 350 years of Northampton's history will be preserved for the 21st century.
Contents Historic Northampton.