Here in Central Massachusetts, we are lucky to have two Living History Museums close by.  The more famous one, Old Sturbridge Village is located on 200 acres.  It now has 59 buildings, 3 mills and a farm.  It exists thanks to the Wells family of Southbridge MA, who established the museum between 1935 and 1946.  Channing Wells, AB Wells and Cheney Wells were all avid collectors of antiques.  In 1935 they established the Wells Historical Museum in Southbridge.  At a meeting in 1936, one of the brothers made the comment that a whole village was needed to house their various collections and the idea of Old Sturbridge Village took off from there.  The first major step was purchasing the farm of David Wight in Sturbridge MA, complete with a saw mill, grist mill and working mill pond, all of which are still in existence today.  From there, the mission expanded to collecting houses from all over New England.

After years of collecting and relocating houses and other structures, Old Sturbridge Village (OSV)  officially opened on June 8, 1946.  Included in the Village is the Friends Meeting House, the Center Meeting House, the Tin Shop, the Salem Town House, a Law Office,  a Parsonnage, the Asa Knight Store, the Thompson Bank, the Fenno House, the Fitch House, a Printing Office, a Shoe Shop and a Town Pound.  There is even more to visit as you walk down the country roads to visit the farm or the mills.

With such a collection of houses, it’s difficult to pin the history to a particular year.  The period portrayed ranges from 1790-1840.  This period is of major significance to New England because lives were transformed by the rise of commerce and manufacturing, improvements in agriculture and transportation, the pulls of emigration and urbanization, and the tides of educational, political, aesthetic, and social change.

Interpreters or docents dressed in period costumes, help you experience village life  in the historical period.  But don’t think that history is boring.  This is a great place to bring children and let them make such necessities as wax candles or tin candle holders.

The other Freilicht museum near by is Historic Deerfield.  This is both a town where time has stopped and also a vibrant modern community with a nice historic inn and a famous prep school.  Unlike Sturbridge, the town and the museum are co-mingled which provides a slightly different experience for museum visitors.

Historic Deerfield was founded in 1952 and comprises 52 buildings on 93 acres.  Eleven houses are open during museum hours.  These were build in the period from 1720 to 1850 and with a couple of exceptions are all original to the town of Deerfield.

In addition to the buildings, the museum has a collection of over 25,000 historically significant objects including American Furniture, American & English Silver, American & English Textiles, English & Chinese Ceramics and hundreds of paintings on display in the houses.  In addition to the historic buildings there is a visitor center, a museum store and the Historic Deerfield Inn built in 1884.   The Inn has 24 guest rooms and a fine dining establishment.

Clamber Hill, another albeit smaller and younger historic inn with a fine dining restaurant, is located more or less equi-distant between these two wonderful museums.  So if you’re a history buff and want to learn more about New England, plan a weekend or even a week here in Central Massachusetts.

In “our spare time” we research and visit interesting places to send our guests. Often our guests help out by telling us about places, which we then go visit.

That was the case with Magic Wings, a Butterfly Museum located in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. A lovely, elderly couple from Connecticut told us about Magic Wings, so the next time our nieces and nephews came to visit we went.

It truly is a magical place. The old Candlelight Restaurant owned by Francis Redmond was converted into an 8000 square feet conservatory (new construction), gift shop, and food court (located in the old restaurant).

You enter through an air lock to protect the butterflies. You are not allowed to touch them, but if you are lucky, they will land on you!

As with Old Sturbridge Village, this is a great place for people of all ages — and if you plan to go, be sure to allow enough time — you need at least a half a day! And don’t forget to take your camera–they do allow you to take photographs inside the conservatory.

And again, Magic Wings is only about 35 minutes from the Inn at Clamber Hill!

And my nieces and nephews had a great time too–churning butter, riding on a horse drawn carriage, watching the blacksmith and the tinsmith and getting a chance to run and play in between stops. It was a great way to spend a snowy winter day.

So if you live in Massachusetts and are looking for something interesting to do during the winter break–consider taking a trip to Sturbridge Village–but plan on spending the entire day there –it’s well worth it.

And if you need a place to stay–there are several right near the village, but Clamber Hill is also only a half hour’s drive away and we are offering a February School Vacation Special this week.