Shelburne Museum

1. One of the restore caroursel animals
2. Everything in this circus was made by a railroad worker as toys for his kids.
3. Ticonderoga steamship
4. The 3 story round barn




August 24 & 25, Sunday: The main reason we came to Shelburne was to visit the Shelburne Museum. In the AAA book it is a gem item. Also many of the people we have talk to have recommended it to us. This is some museum. It sits on 45 acres. Needless to say we walked all of it but it took us two days. You start at entrance of a huge 3 story red round barn. This building was dismantled and moved to this location by Mrs. Electra Webb. Well, not her personally but she made it possible. After buying your ticket you start by viewing restored carousel animals. They are displayed as works of art and not on the actual carousel. The original pieces are from the 19th century where several carousels used lions, tigers, camels, goats, and etc. to ride on. However, they began to notice the children preferred the horses so they started only making the horses for modern carousels. The next building was built in the shape of a horseshoe. It contains a 500ft long circus parade. All of the pieces are handcrafted from wood. Very impressive! On the opposite wall were many old time circus posters.


We then walked down a path to see the Beach Lodge. I am just going to take a minute to say that most of these buildings were dismantled and rebuilt here on site. Each building is great to look at in itself but each houses different art collections. Let me tell you there are lots of buildings, pathways, and gardens. Now you see why it is on 45 acres. OK back to the Beach Lodge......... this building depicts a hunting lodge so yep...stuffed animals plus furniture from that 1920 period. Then off to the train station with its own locomotive and passage car. By now it is lunch time. Where else to have lunch but at the old farmhouse. Shared a chicken/pecan salad with ice tea.


After lunch we went to the old Ticonderoga steamship. That was very interesting to see the movie on how they brought it from Lake Champlain to its finally resting place. It was only two miles but you can only imagine the work it took. Just to let you know the size, it is 220 ft long, 58 ft wide, and weighs892 tons. It has been completely restored and it is beautiful. Oh yeah, Larry wanted to say, it runs by a single piston---9ft stroke and 53 inch bore. Now I hope that makes sense to some of you but me????????????


The buildings ranged from a simple one room Stone Cottage to Larry's favorite of the day, a townhouse which had a tavern attached. It also had rooms for rent w/meals and at one time used to hold court in one of the back rooms. After talking to the lady here she said the family just changed with what ever was happening at the time. Very entrepreneur!!!!


Well, not too bad AAA said allow 4 hours...........we are leaving after 6 hours and returning tomorrow.





Monday: Off to finish the museum. We think we are about half finished. We started at a "green house" built in the 60s out of shipping containers. Roll-up doors that open both sides to the area outdoors. Very odd! On down the lane to walk through the covered bridge to the 1840 one-room school. Over to the original farmhouse which was on the 45 acres when Electra Webb started this museum. It houses glassware, pewter, trivets, etc. downstairs with a porcelain doll and autorata collection upstairs. Larry's favorite of the day building, was a horseshoe shaped barn. Now one of the interesting facts about this building...........the farmer would not sell it to Electra so she sent "her people" out to copy it exactly like it was built. This building houses the largest collection of horse drawn sleighs. His favorite sleigh was a school bus with a small wood stove to keep the kids warm on their way to school.


The 1871 lighthouse came from Colchester Reef on Lake Champlain. We couldn't imagine raising four kids on this small area. You had to get all your supplies yourself by row boat. This included going across during the winter. Scary!!!!!!!!! We also toured the 1950 house. Fun! Fun! Fun! that is until Larry and I realized that our childhood home was in a museum.


I could go on forever.......oh that's right I have.........Still more buildings we didn't talk about. All we can say is... if you are ever in the area of Shelburne, Vermont...it is well worth seeing.


Also a very huge THANK YOU to Electra Havemeyer Webb for her generosity and foresight.


My favorite...............the Mary Cassatt & other Impressionist exhibit. Mary Cassatt was friends with Electra's mother. I was very pleased to see they had several areas for kids to play outside and also some areas to work on crafts. Nice relieve from looking at other stuff.


Home to walk the dogs .............like we haven't walked enough.


Good Night!