Historic Village

The 19th-century Village features authentic buildings which provide an intimate view of commercial and domestic practices common to rural life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

In the distance you might hear the blacksmith pounding iron at his forge, or an excited exchange at Todd’s General Store. Just as in the 1840s, the village is still a gathering place, lively with specialized pursuits and skilled occupations, each exquisite in its detail. At the American Paper-Staining Manufactory, you’ll witness the country’s only public access block press wallpaper workshop. The pharmacist will share centuries-old secrets of medicinals and salves, the printer helps you lay type for the flatbed press at the Middlefield Printing Office, and at Bump Tavern you’ll find respite in a game of Nine Man Morris.

On any given day the village tickles the senses with a fresh mix of sights, sounds, smells – there may be fiddlers playing on the porch of Dimmick House, or shots being fired on the wooded hilltop by Civil War reenactors. On the outskirts of town, you may happen on a Seneca Log House, an original Native American structure. The village architecture itself is a marvel, the buildings having been gathered from rural communities around New York state and painstakingly relocated and restored, piece by piece.

More on our historic structures at the museum (You will be transferred to a separate website which will open in a new window.)