The Barn

The museum is, fittingly, an old barn, moved to its present site in 1930, but built in 1782. Originally it was located on the Porter-Phelps Huntington estate, two miles up the river. The exterior was remodeled with white painted clapboards and windows to harmonize with the other public buildings in the neighborhood. An ornate, colonial doorway was added, which is a copy of the main entrance to the McQueston house, the oldest house in the village.

The interior is much the same as when originally built -- hand hewn timbers, old rough boards and planks, un-painted, the hay mows of yesterday displaying the farm tools of our ancestors. The old timbers and boards used in restoration came from similar old barns torn down when the Quabbin Reservoir was made for Boston's water supply in nearby towns of Prescott, Enfield, Greenwich, and Pelham.