Storrowton Village
History of Storrowton Village
It all began in 1926 with a need to find an appropriate setting for the Home Department at the Eastern States Exposition, where handicraft exhibits had been housed in small, temporary buildings.
Helen Osborne Storrow was an active trustee of the Exposition and chairman of the Home Department. While decorating one of the temporary structures to depict an early American kitchen, Storrow dreamed of moving an actual home to the site - a building with its own kitchen.
She discussed the possibility with friends and later met Arthur Gilbert who told her about his 18th century summer home. Storrow purchased the Gilbert Farmstead for $200 and moved it here from West Brookfield, Massachusetts, in 1927. From then on, other antique buildings were purchased, dismantled and reconstructed here to create Storrowton Village.
Here stands a village such as our forefathers built on hills, crossroads and along rivers. Although Storrowton's buildings come from different states and are of different periods of construction, together they form a typical New England Village and include a Meeting House, Schoolhouse, General Store, Blacksmith Shop, Tavern, Law Office and historic homes all surrounding a traditional village green.
For photos and history of Storrowton's buildings, click on each link below:
The Phillips House (c. 1767)
The Meeting House (c. 1834)
The Little Red Schoolhouse (c. 1810)
The Blacksmith Shop (c. 1850)
The Potter Mansion (c. 1776)
The Eddy Law Office (c. 1810)
The Gilbert Farmstead (c. 1794)
Old Storrowton Tavern (The Atkinson Tavern (c. 1789) & Southwick Baptist Meeting House (c. 1822))