Hi everyone! We're sorry that we didn't post much for two months (or two moons, haha!). We were away on trips and getting ready for school. I'm now in third grade!
This post is about the Webb, Deane, and Stevens houses in Wethersfield, CT. We went there back in August with our friends, Kelly and Mathis and Aiden. They are from France, just like Lafayette!
When we got to Wethersfield, we got some energy by eating....FOOD! Then we walked down the road to the Webb House to buy tickets. Our tour actually started at the Silas Deane house.
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| Walking to the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum |
Silas Deane helped plan and gave money for the battle at Fort Ticonderoga. He went to France to help try to convince the French to help the Americans in the Revolutionary War. Here are some pictures of his house.
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| Sign at the Silas Deane house |
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| In front of the Silas Deane house with our tour guide |
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That door is called a Dutch door. The top and bottom can open separately. I knew what it was when the tour guide asked us!
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| The "Best" Parlor |
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| Back Parlor |
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| Kitchen |
Sadly, all the yummy FOOD is fake.
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| Meat smoker in a closet above the kitchen |
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| Pretty dress |
I'm standing in front of the dress because I wish that I could sneak under the rope and put it on. Sadly, I couldn't. P.S. It would probably be too big.
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| Fire Screen* |
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*Mom's going to tell you about the fire screen.
Beauty practices in the 18th century consisted of wearing cosmetics made out of beeswax to cover the common scars left behind by smallpox. Fire screens were placed between an individual and the fireplace to prevent the wax from melting. It's where the phrase "melt your face off" came from.
Next we went to the Isaac Stevens house. This house was built after the Revolutionary War, but we still have a picture to show because there was a children's exhibit. I want to see if you can identify which children are boys and girls. Children back then wore dresses and had long hair (unless they were babies with no hair).
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| Which are girls and which are boys? |
Here's a hint: girls have dolls, sewing materials, and flowers. Boys have animals, fishing rods, school books, and stamps.
I also learned about bathrooms at the Stevens house. If you lived back then, you would have to go to the bathroom in a chamber pot and wipe with a corn husk. It does not sound comfortable!
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| At least you didn't have to get out of bed to use the bathroom! |
The last house was the Joseph Webb house. This is where the Battle of Yorktown was planned!!!! (Duhn, duhn, duuuuuuuhn!) George Washington and Rochambeau met there in 1781.
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| Sign outside the Webb house |
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| Front of the Webb house |
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| Plaque outside the Webb house |
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| The bedroom where the battle was planned |
On the right is the original wallpaper. On the left was a reproduction of it. They decided to keep the original because they found King George's stamp on the back. Here's a picture of a picture of the stamp.
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| King George's stamp |
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Downstairs in the house there is the Yorktown Parlor. It is filled with a bunch of murals that a later owner had painted. His name was Walnut Butter* (teeheehee). He loved George Washington so much that he wanted everybody's faces to be the exact same as George Washington's. He wanted everyone to have shoes on, but in real life their uniforms would've been torn and they wouldn't have shoes because they had just gotten done defeating the British in the Battle of Yorktown.
*His name was really Wallace Nutting
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| Georges, move on out! |
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| "What do you think, George?" "I don't know, George, what do you think?" |
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| Too many shoes! |
It was fun having my friends from France with me on this trip, especially since we saw where the Americans and French got together to plan our victory!
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| The French-American alliance is still strong! |
