Stanley-Whitman House Is Making May Count: Three Events That Put Farmington at the Center of FarmingtonCT250

America turns 250 this year, and Farmington has a story to tell.

The Stanley-Whitman House, a National Historic Landmark built around 1720 in the heart of the Farmington Village Green, is spending the month of May doing what it has always done: bringing the past into genuine conversation with the present. This spring, that means three distinct programs that together make a strong case for the Stanley-Whitman House as the place in central Connecticut to mark this once-in-a-generation anniversary.

The programs are not re-enactments for their own sake. They are entry points into questions that still matter: What did ordinary people eat and endure during the Revolution? Who served, who was forgotten, and who bothered to remember? What does it look like when history is told with rigor and care inside a building that was already standing when the war began?

May 16: What Connecticut's Soldiers Actually Ate

The Continental Army promised its soldiers a daily ration of bread, fresh or salted meat, rum or beer, and dried peas or beans. What they actually received was another matter.

On Saturday, May 16, from noon to 2:00 PM, living-history interpreter Dennis Picard brings Revolutionary War camp cooking to the historic hearth at the Stanley-Whitman House. Drawing on soldier diaries and memoirs, Picard will tell the stories of men who wintered at the Connecticut encampments in Redding and West Hartford, cooking Burgoo, Salt Pork Hash, and dried peas with the equipment and techniques of the era. Visitors are invited to watch, ask questions, and taste.

This is the kind of program that works because the Stanley-Whitman House hearth is the real thing. Tickets are $20 for members and $25 for the general public. Space is limited. FMI: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1986843004912

May 17: Recovering a Forgotten Connecticut Hero

The day after, on Sunday, May 17, from 2:00 to 3:30 PM, historian and author Dayne Rugh comes to Farmington with a story that deserves to be told in exactly this room.

Rugh has spent years researching Colonel John Durkee, a Norwich-born officer who served under General Washington, fought in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, and died in 1782 having been virtually erased from the historical record. He will open the program in character, presenting in the first person as Colonel Durkee in period regimental clothing. He will then step out of character to deliver an illustrated presentation drawn from his biography, John Durkee: The Forgotten Story of Connecticut's Bold Man from Bean Hill.

The Stanley-Whitman House was already more than fifty years old when Durkee answered the call to fight. Farmington sent its own sons into the same war. This is not a story imported from somewhere else and placed in a neutral venue. It belongs here.

Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $10 per person to support FarmingtonCT250 programming. Books will be available for purchase and signing at $20.00. FMI: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1986841717060

May 30: The Militia Comes to Farmington

On Saturday, May 30, from noon to 4:00 PM, the grounds of the Stanley-Whitman House become an encampment.

Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia, Company 1775, a dedicated living-history group portraying soldiers and civilians of Connecticut's Third Regiment, sets up camp on the museum's historic grounds for an afternoon of immersive Revolutionary War interpretation. Military drills and inspections share the afternoon with civilian trades: beekeeping, a surgeon, crime and punishment demonstrations, hands-on musket drill for younger visitors, and more.

The encampment is free and open to the public. Historic house tours are available at regular admission rates.
FMI: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/198684722854

Watch a short video from last year's encampment: https://youtu.be/37iJCUukGRQ

Please note that the Roots and Reflections painting exhibition by Rachael and John O'Shaughnessy will be on view in the Spear Classroom and Whitman Tavern throughout the afternoon.

A Place to Be This Year

The America 250 anniversary will generate a great deal of ceremony across the country. What it will not automatically generate is depth. The Stanley-Whitman House is built for depth. Its collections, its interpreters, and its c. 1720 structure place visitors in contact with the actual texture of early American life in ways that few institutions in Connecticut can match.

May is a good time to find out what that feels like.

Full event details and tickets at s-wh.org.