The Montville Historical Museum opened in 1867. It is a one room museum that is only open on Sundays. There are a few visitors every week. The museum is filled with artifacts from Montville's History. When Montville was first established as a town, it was mostly farmland. Since then Montville has changed from a farming town into a bustling suburb full of NYC commuters. The museum is one of the last remaining glimpses into the way Montville once looked and how it began.
The Museum is located in the midst of town off of a main road in a very small one room building surrounded by many other larger buildings. It is barely noticed by many people that live in Montville. When I asked some of my students if they had ever been there, some even said "we have a museum?" "I didn't even know that place existed!"
As the picture shows, This was also the first school house in Montville and in the area. The sign tells us that, but it wasn’t until I read this poem that I began to think about this space in a new light.
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After reading this poem I started to think about this space in a new way. I started thinking about what kinds of memories were made in this space. Also, if the first students in this school house were to come back to it in it’s present state, what would they think? Would they recognize it? What kinds of stories would they have to tell about it? This got me thinking and I wonder: What would the first residence of Montville think about what it has become? Would they be pleased, disappointed, surprised?
For more information about the Montville Museum, click here.
For more information about the Montville Museum, click here.
Is there any community outreach to use the museum more? I would think that schools would want to use this space for not only local history, but to show how a museum functions, the art of cultivating, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amy. I am going to guess by both of your posts that you are a Montville resident and seem concerned about Montville's past. Perhaps you can suggest some ideas to the Museum. For example, the schoolhouse that I researched for this project does special displays and exhibits as well as festivals and reenactments throughout the year. It generates more interest!
ReplyDeletealso, i really liked your questions. They got me thinking and I think they would be great questions to ask a class too for some creative writing assignments!
For a year after high school (and before college), I worked in a 24 hour convenience store/gas station in Connecticut. I have so many vivid memories of working there, and just last year for the first time in almost 25 years I drove past it (I don't have much reason to be in that part of the state anymore). It was so, so incredibly small. Tiny even. My memory of the space was so outsized.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if people who went to school in these one room school houses would feel the same? We think of the limitations of the spaces, but that is not the only way to experience them. The human connections might make them feel rather comfortable.
At first, when I read the poem and viewed the pictures, it made me think of my days in elementary school. Memories of falling off the monkey bars, my favorite teacher, and my childhood friends brought a smile to my face. Then I began to wonder if I went back to visit would all those great memories that I have idealized become ordinary, and if so, then I don't think I would want to go back.
ReplyDeleteI sort of am living through this as I substitute teach in my old elementary school. I loved elementary school and it is hard to see the changes... trees that were cut down, a monument that was replaced, and almost all my teachers gone! hahha.
ReplyDeleteAmy-
ReplyDeleteI am currently teaching in my old elementary school with some of my old teachers, so I know the feeling! It is the same as I remember it in so many ways but some things of course have changed. I now see the space in a different way and am making different types of memories there with my students and co-workers, rather than with my friends and teachers.
Being a resident of Montville, I often pass this site, and always imagine what life would be like as a teacher in the school. Looking at the building, it is so incredilbly small, I often wonder how teachers accomplished anything in them! I almost used this as one of my sites too!
ReplyDeleteMichele