We spent the first Saturday in October at Genesee Country Village and Museum. We’d been planning the day in Rochester anyway, and Joyce won tickets from WVIN – yahoo!
It was a chilly, breezy, overcast day. And we had a great time.
In case you’re not aware, Genesee Country Village is one of those places where historical homes and buildings have been gathered to create a faux village for living history… like Old Sturbridge Village, or the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown. You wander in and out of the buildings and along the streets, meeting docents in period costume.
For instance, we enjoyed visiting with the “storekeeper” in the Altay store, the more so since Altay is nearby, not far from Seneca Lake. We discussed the stock (much of it bulk), for which they have a good feel since along with the store came some of the store’s old ledgers. We also marveled to the fact that Altay was on the stagecoach route between Bath and Rochester – not really a straight path.
Also from someplace right close at hand was the Hamilton House, an 1870 Italianate mansion from Campbell. The village shows the progression of time from the late 18th century to the late 19th century. For instance, on this cloudy day the Altay store was so dark that we weren’t sure at first whether it was open. At Hamilton House they have –electricity! And good lighting!
So we could see and enjoy a case of stuffed songbirds (horrifying today, popular back then), an indoor croquet set, a quilt being worked on. We also admired the “up-to-date” kitchen, though I’ll confess that I hurried with eyes averted past the proudly-displayed hair wreath. Those things give me the creeps.
Next door at the contemporary Hyde House (originally from Friendship) we got to get a good feel for life in an octagon house. This was owned by a doctor until 1924, by which time he had laid on electricity. But our visit was a vivid demonstration of one of the virtues of the octagon house. By softening the corners, and by adding many windows at many anglers, the octagon house eliminates dark pockets within the home. Orson Squire Fowler, originally from Cohocton, designed or at least popularized the octagon house, touting among other things its health benefits in warding off what we’d call depression.
By the pre-1850 livery barn we visited with a couple of oxen, and throughout the village enjoyed meeting horses, sheep, and goats. The Fall Festival and Agricultural Fair were on, so we passed happily among demonstrations of cider making and corn hulling.
The oldest building in the village is the 1797 Nathaniel Rochester house, moved in from Dansville. The newest is the 1884 Davis Hall from South Butler in Wayne County. There are also two churches (Catholic and Methodist), the Trustees’ Building from the short-lived Shaker colony in Sonyea, and George Eastman’s childhood home… not to mention the print shop, the blacksmith shop, and many gardens.
Access to the historic village is through the toll house built around 1850 in Lima. Outside the toll house, circling the Great Meadow, are several railroad buildings (mostly repurposed as eating places, the carriage museum, and the John L. Wehle Gallery.
This is the home for traditional setpiece museum exhibits. The substantial art collection is dedicated mostly to Mr. Wehle’s collection of “sporting” art, to do with hunting, fishing, and wildlife. From a distance I smugly spotted elk and caribou paintings as the work of Carl Rungius (I learned about Rungius at Rockwell Museum).
I had expected to pretty much pass through a temporary exhibit on clothing in literature, but found myself immediately drawn in by a mounted mannequin wearing a cloak like that worn by the Headless Horseman in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” With label copy cueing us in on the story and the clothing, it was the entry to a delightful exhibit. Here were the March girls, dressed as described by Louisa May Alcott, and here the velvet suit popularized by Little Lord Fauntleroy. Sherlock Holmes lounged about in his dressing gown.
Most of the characters were represented by faceless mannequins, except for – the Invisible Man! There he stood in his smoking jacket contemptuously surveying Kemp, hands on hips (but there WERE no hands!), fez with dangling tassel perched atop his cocked head (but there was no head!). Bravo (or brava) to the curator(s) who created the Invisible Man. He alone was almost worth the trip.
Joyce really enjoyed the domestic arts competition in the Conference Center, while I was thrilled to visit the Civil War encampment and finally see (and handle!) the balloon “Intrepid,” an oversize copy of one of the observation balloons operated by Thaddeus Lowe during that war. Had weather been better they’d have raised the balloon on its tether, but I was quite happy with what I got to see, and with a good discussion about the aircraft’s operation.
Genesee Country Village was on my summer list – particularly the balloon, the art gallery, and the 19th-century baseball. Health problems ran us a little late. We didn’t get the baseball, but that’s just a good excuse to go back.