History of the Museum

1944 Main St.

at the corner of Main St. & Hubbard St.

Admission is Free

Museum Hours: 

Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 9 am - 4 pm

Third Sunday of the month 1- 4 pm

The building that serves as our main museum was built between 1839 and 1840 as the Town House. It was built by Parley Bidwell, who probably designed it, as well. Mr. Bidwell had built the Methodist Church on High Street about 2 years earlier. We now know that building as the South Glastonbury Library.

The Museum is housed in the first Town Hall built in Glastonbury c. 1840, and served for 100 years. Before there was a separation of Church and State, the first Meeting House stood on this spot and served as both Church and Town House. It has been said that the Museum’s building was built of ballast bricks, possibly from North Africa. Because there was more than one brickyard in Glastonbury, this may be not be the case. The adjacent cemetery is from the church. The first school was also located on the Green. Livestock grazed on the Town Green and the Militia practiced here. There was a pig pound on the edge of the Green, keeping pigs out of the crops and preventing the damage they did.

The exhibits cover the town from its Native American roots through European settlement up to the early 20^th century.

Featured displays include:  Native Americans, Colonial Era, the famous Smith Sisters (abolitionists & suffragists), the Civil War, Hale Farm, Industries such as Shipbuilding, J. B. Williams Soap Co., and Harriman Motors who built airplanes in the early 20^th century, and much more.

The Museum also has a Library, Genealogy dept., and Curatorial department.

Click Current Exhibits to See Current Feature

There’s been a lot happening at the Museum on the Green.   

We’ve been busy working on a new exhibit that will illustrate Glastonbury’s participation in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam.  Come and see how it grows, as we work on it.  If you have a photo of plane spotting tours on Tower (Apple) Hill, or on top of Naubuc School, we would love it if you’d loan it to us for scanning.  Or, if you have a plane spotter’s silhouette chart, we’d love a loan (or gift) of that, as well.  There is a spot in the exhibit reserved for it. 

Glastonbury High School has the oldest high school Russian Language program in the United States.  It’s in its 50^th year.  To celebrate, the Board of Education has curated an exhibit of Russian artifacts, collected during those 50 years, at the Museum.   

Curatorial

(Lin Scarduzio)

The Historical Society of Glastonbury has been fortunate to receive many gifts this year, as we have in years past. Donating an object to HSG is a way, not only of preserving it, but of sharing it with many other people. When we receive something, we consider it in light of displays already on view, and displays that are currently in the planning stage. This past year, gifts included:
• Shelf clock made c. 1830 by O&O House, Glastenbury – Farmer’s Museum, Cooperstown, NY
• Ski patch c. 1970 for J.B. Williams Park ski tow – Susan Motycka
• Cigar container – Janice Franklin Glotzer
• Furnace shovel and a cultivating hoe – Joe and Fran Wright
• Framed resolution appointing John H. Roser to the Board of Directors of Glastonbury Bank & Trust – Nancy Roser Bestor
• White leather school hat - Nancy Roser Bestor
• Twelve account book, Roser’s Tannery - Nancy Roser Bestor
• Two checkbooks, Roser’s Tannery - Nancy Roser Bestor
• Bulldog pistol manufactured in Curtisville – Edward Blacha , Jr.
• German Bible belonging to the Tenner family – John D. Brewer
• Hay lifting fork from Arbor Acres – Town of Glastonbury
• Framed photograph of Herman Roser & Sons, Inc. - Nancy Roser Bestor
• Framed certificate of appreciation to Herman Roser & Sons, Inc. - Nancy Roser Bestor
• Leather briefcase, German-made - Nancy Roser Bestor
• Mounted toy cannon – Harold Buckingham, Jr.
• One pair women’s Glastonbury runners (ice skates) – Harold Buckingham, Jr.
• Two stone arrowheads – Harold Buckingham, Jr.
• Stone adz – Harold Buckingham, Jr.
• Stone axe – Harold Buckingham, Jr.
• Toilet bottle, J.B. Williams’ Alpine Rose toilet water – Barbara Therukauf
• Bill hook – Joseph Sullivan
• Navy uniform, Seabees, Viet Nam War – Brian Hollister
• Black plastic ruler, campaign “giveaway” for Board of Education – Judy Harper
• Milk bottle caps, A.E. Moseley Dairy – James Buckingham
• Child’s kindergarten desk with drawer and attached chair – Catherine Dorn
• Two wooden kindergarten chairs – Catherine Dorn
• Wooden keg top from Scotts Plastics, Glastonbury – Walter K. Smith
• Wooden fertilizer spreader – Sara M. & Charles K. Barton
• Silver-plated teaspoon celebrating Glastonbury, 1653 – Virginia H. Holland
• Soft cheese server/spreader, silver plate – Virginia H. Holland
• Set of 6 silver-plate nut or meat picks – Virginia H. Holland
• Leather buggy harness – Joseph Sullivan
• Milk bottle cap, Wassuc Farms – John Heagle
• Five stone arrowheads – Frederick F. Bruening
• Bonnet top chest on chest c. 1780 – Elizabeth Hale Gorton Collier
SEE MORE INFO. BELOW
• Family register sampler – Elizabeth Hale Gorton Collier
• Framed photograph of young woman – Elizabeth Hale Gorton Collier
• Framed photograph of J.H.Hale and daughter, Laura (Hale Gorton) – Elizabeth Hale Gorton Collier
• Many Hale family related papers and notes – Elizabeth Hale Gorton Collier
• Pennant commemorating return of WWI soldiers to Glastonbury – Robert Ferrando
• Two pennants commemorating Glastonbury Day, October 1, 1912 – Robert Ferrando

Hale Chest on Chest
(Jim Bennett)

For several years HSG’s President Gil Tyler and I have been in conversation with Elizabeth Hale Gorton Collier the granddaughter of J.H. Hale the Peach King. Elizabeth had a magnificent Chest on Chest which according to her, descended directly through the Hale family of Glastonbury. She was a wonderful woman interested in preserving Glastonbury history having lived here as a child in the colonial house at 971 Main Street across from the Welles Shipman Ward house (WSW). Before her passing on December 9, 2011, she gifted the Chest on Chest to HSG. Currently, it is at the Museum on the Green but will move this spring to WSW as per her request.

LOWER CASE: A four drawer carcass rests on molded edge frame with shaped bracket feet. Four long rectangular graduated drawers with brass Chippendale pulls and escutcheons. On the side of the bracket feet are 4 and a half exposed dovetails. Each foot has cyma curve shaping up to a flat arched apron.

UPPER CASE: Steep bonnet top cabinet has broken arch with central tympanum. Bonnet has curved applied molding front with applied lozenge shaped dentils. Central plinth has carved pinwheel. The hood has a closed paneled roof and back. Turned end finials on block plinths with a matching, shorter central finial, which is doweled into the central lobe of the pediment just above the carved pinwheel. Four long rectangular graduated drawers with brass Chippendale pulls and escutcheons. One central drawer with double carved fan and incised outline with two smaller flanking drawer. The drawer dividers have exposed dovetails.
The drawers throughout have half rounded sides and are dovetailed. The drawer faces are quarter rounded. Large saw kerf marks are visible on the pine drawer bottoms.

MATERIALS: Cherry, poplar, eastern white pine.
SIZE: Overall measurements 80.5” tall x 39” wide x 19.5” deep. The upper case is 19 x 46 x 39”, lower case is 19 x 35 x 39”.
On the upper and lower case of the back is carved initials and apparent Social Security numbers, early 20th. C.
ORIGIN: Most likely Glastonbury
DATE: c. 1780
MAKER: Unknown. Further research of this object may provide an attribution to the “Stratton Group” or those objects attributed to Isaac Tryon.

NOTABLE FEATURES:
-Square plinths and acorn turned finials
-Steep Bonnet with molding and dentils -similar Tryon attributed highboy in the Wadsworth Athenaeum.
-Double fans on carved drawer face- associated with Colchester and Tryon objects. A double fan is a small-2 inch- convex carved fan around the pull on top of the carved concave fan.
-Central pinwheel carving
-Dovetail through drawer slides.
-Closed bonnet with roof
-Molding continued 6 inches on the inside of bonnet hood
- Upper and lower case has been refinished- possibly c.1940.
-Side panels of drawers are rounded