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| THE TREASURES OF HISTORIC PORTSMOUTH
The Decorative Arts Trust Fall Symposium, 2010 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been described as one of the most culturally Host Hotel: Hilton Garden Inn Registration for this symposium is now closed. The Symposium Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Thursday Optional Tour Maine: York and South Berwick Depart by motor coach for York, Maine. On the banks of the York River, it is the oldest town in Maine and comprised of York Village, York Beach, and York Harbor. In York, Trust members will visit Historic New England’s Sayward Wheeler house and The Museums of York where the famed Bulman bedhangings reside, the only complete set of eighteenth-century crewelwork bedhangings made in North America known to exist today. In a region known for its early American architecture and local history collections, the York Museums are known for the breadth and depth of its collections. The collections are purely local in origin and most were donated by community residents descended from the people who originally owned, made and used the objects. The Emerson-Wilcox House (1742, 1760 and 1817) exhibits ceramic collections of virtually every major European export ware for the period 1700 to 1840, ranging from Wincanton tin glazed earthenware to historical Staffordshire dinner services as well as oriental ceramics. Most of the Museum's collections of English wares date from the first quarter of the nineteenth century and were originally owned by York families. The Sayward-Wheeler House (1718) was the home of Jonathan Sayward, a local merchant and civic leader, who, in the 1760s, remodeled and furnished his house that overlooked a thriving waterfront. After his death, his heirs made few changes to the house. As early as the 1860s, Sayward's descendants opened the house to visitors to show how their forebears had lived in “bygone colonial days.” The parlor is one of the most original 18th century rooms in America with its original upholstered furniture, ceramics, glass, prints and portraits. Richard Nylander, Curator Emeritus of Historic New England, will be there to guide you. Continue on for lunch at the historic York Harbor Reading Room, a private summer club overlooking the ocean. Richard Jackson, a club member and our luncheon sponsor, will talk to us about the five Reading Rooms from Newport to Saratoga. After lunch we drive on to South Berwick for visits to the Hamilton House (1785) and the Sarah Orne Jewett House (1774), both properties of Historic New England. After railroads made the region accessible in the late 19th century, coastal Maine became a fashionable destination for wealthy summer people. Many of the newcomers bought and restored the fine old houses built during the prosperous years following the American Revolution. In 1898, Mrs. Emily Tyson and her stepdaughter, Elise, purchased the c. 1785 Hamilton House, built on a magnificent site overlooking the Salmon Falls River. The Tysons flung themselves into a lifelong project to restore the house to its former glory. Influenced by literary imagery, including the writings of their neighbor and friend, Sarah Orne Jewett, they decorated with a mixture of elegant antiques, painted murals, and simple country furnishings to create their own romantic interpretation of America's colonial past. Writer Sarah Orne Jewett spent much of her life in the nearby stately Georgian residence, owned by her family since 1819. The view from her desk in the second-floor hall surveys the town's major intersection and provided her with material for her books, such as The Country of the Pointed Firs, which describe the character of the Maine countryside and seacoast with accuracy and affection. New research, you may have read about in Antiques and Fine Arts, shows this desk to be by local cabinetmaker Joseph Murray. Three rooms of the Jewett House have early wallpaper, one with an 18th century flock. Sunday Optional Tour Newbury and Newburyport Depart by motor coach after morning lectures and travel to Newbury for Afterwards return to the early eighteenth-century in Newbury with a visit to a private home appointed as it might have been in the period before 1725 with early Walk across the Street to the Coffin House (1678) of Historic New England. It was occupied by the Coffin family over three centuries, and provides fascinating insight into domestic life in rural New England. The structure, which contains the family's furnishings has local Newbury and Newburyport furniture. Then, by coach, to the 230-acre Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm (1690). This architecturally
interesting late seventeenth-century manor house built of stone and brick in a cruciform plan served as the country seat of wealthy Newburyport merchants. The site also fosters farm animals in partnership with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Friendly sheep, goats, chickens, and a horse are at home there. IMPORTANT... HOST HOTEL: The Trust has reserved rooms from Wednesday, September 29, to Monday October 4, 2010. These rooms and the special rate will be held by the hotel until Sunday, August 29, 2010. Please make your reservations before this date. TRAVEL: Portsmouth is on the New Hampshire Seacoast, roughly an hour north of Boston, an hour east of Manchester, N.H., and an hour south of Portland, Maine. Driving Directions:
Airports:
Shuttle and Limo Service: Southwick Airport Shuttle. Serves Logan and Manchester airports. Pickup and drop-off. (888) 942-5044 Coastal Transportation Services. A full-service chauffeured transportation company offering limousines, executive sedans, vans and luxury mini-coaches. (800) 992-0518 Seacoast Airport Service. Luxury chauffeured transportation based in Portsmouth serving all New England Airports, offering door to door service in late model Lincoln Town cars, local and long distance 24 hours/7 days. Toll-free, 1(866) 431-1580. Luxury Limousine. Serves Logan, Manchester and Portland airports. Pickup and drop-off. (800) 214-5172 Taxi: Portsmouth Taxi. A local metered taxi service based in Portsmouth and licensed by the city, Portsmouth Taxi provides transportation to help meet the needs of the community and visitors to the area. We are available 24/7 and operate clean, reliable, comfortable vehicles equipped with GPS (603) 431-6811 Train or Air and Bus. C&J Bus leaves from both Logan International Airport and the South Station in Boston where the Amtrak trains arrive. It departs hourly and goes to Portsmouth, NH. Registration for this symposium has been closed. |
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