Last weekend I went to a colonial plantation in eastern Pennsylvania. While I was there, I went into the colonial house and was told about the history of the buildings. It was built by the Quakers in the late 1700s. It’s hard to find the specific year that it was built because it was renovated so many times throughout the 1700s that there is no documented year or month that it went from being a field to a house. Because it was part of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania was a freestate, this plantation did not have any slaves in it during any of the time that it was being used. In fact, it was used as an working plantation and farm until World War II when it was evacuated. Between the 1940s and 1960s, the house was inhabited by homeless people and hippies and was used as a informal naturalist colony.
In 1967, PA bought more than 2000 acres of land. After many stone houses and other historic buildings were discovered on this land they decided to open a national park. This was to become Ridley State Park. It was an empty stone house all those years, until a group of people took interest in it. This group of people soon became the Bishop’s Mill society. They decided to find, preserve and register the old houses and barns on the property.
In 1973 the society decided to take it a step further and create a living museum in the colonial house and to make a working plantation and farm crops and have people actually living on the site.
In 1973 the society decided to take it a step further and create a living museum in the colonial house and to make a working plantation and farm crops and have people actually living on the site.
The Pennsylvania Colonial Plantation is an independent organization with a lease of “100 years for a nickel” as the tour guide told me. It’s not part of any state Park and it’s not registered under preserve the land so people can live and work in and around the colonial house and plantation.
The weekend that I was there, the farm was hosting several re-enactors from different time periods. They had set up camp and had open fires and clay ovens. They had full sets of armor and represented many different countries. There were reenactors representing people from ancient Rome and Greece. People from the 15 century Britain. People from the dark ages in the Middle Ages. People from Russia in the 1600s.
I talked to an actor who had an entire medieval set of armor and he let me try on the glove. It had so many little details, it was really ingenious but it was heav. However, I could see the advantage that the swordsmen had with having so much protection around the part of their body that controlled the weapon. He said that many of the craftsman had make detailed sketches of the soldiers’ bodies to get the armor exactly right. The curves of the peoples arms, legs and torso were so detailed.
The Latin re-enactors told me that each of the Latin soldiers had a belt on that had gold plates with leather straps hanging down from their waste. These were trophies that show that they were a Roman soldier. When a soldier entered the army, he would invest all of his money into getting the best gold and silver to go on his belt to show his rank and honor. Many of the local boys from local villages would cut off the belts and run away with them. In one case, soldiers got so frustrated that they ambushed into the city and massacred the people to try and reprimand the boys who stole their prized possessions.
Another re-enactor from Russia, told me that the weapon of choice in his time was a type of spear that had a curved edge and a space where you could put a gun. When the musket spread to Russia, The spear served as a stand to aim the heavy gun better. The two step attack plan was to shot enemies from far away and then as they got closer, to drop the gun to their side pick up the spear and just start slicing through the crowds. When the all-in-one bayonet was introduced, the spear’s use was greatly diminished.
Going into the actual house, I saw that the Quakers were very simple.They had seven people living in the house as the owners and relatives of the owners, although their were only two bedrooms. They had very simple meals. As someone who is very interested in culinary, especially historical culinary, I was interested to learn that the Quakers had advanced in the technical parts of cooking.
They had gigantic fireplaces with steel rods on turners that could swing over the fire and off as needed. They had different hooks hanging from it , to hold the things like kettles for the tea. They also had a cast-iron pot for heating up and cooking soups and stews. I also learned that the original house had an oven that was slap in the center of the back wall of the fireplace.This was very impractical because it was a very small oven floor. As all the baking was done on one day this would have made it slow, hot, difficult work. You had to reach over burning wood or you could bake only when other things weren't cooking. So eventually, they moved the oven opening to the side and made a bigger, wider oven base that extends into the back room, which I got to see. It was almost as big the hood of a car. It was very difficult to put cabinets or shelves in your kitchen, because it was hard to nail them into a wall without severely damaging it. People usually hung herbs, onions and sometimes even chairs from the ceiling. This saved space and made the finding and preserving of food much easier.
In the second room, I saw a small chest on wooden, curved legs. This was a spice chest and, as you might have guessed, held exotic spices that proved your wealth. On top, was a tray of glass bottles holding and suspicious looking liquids. A few sets of antique shot glasses filled up the rest of the tray. I thought it could be alcohol, but it was in fact, old medicinal syrups and tonics. One was labeled, “vinegar for headaches”, no thanks all the same.
As you can tell, the plantation brings the past to life and gave me a moment to see a snapshot of the world in 1765. With straw hats with trailing ribbons hung in the front hallway and an untidy bed upstairs, you'll feel the years fade and you'll take a breath of the same air that people from long ago searched for as “history” happened to them. The start of the revolution, the civil war, the great depression, WWII, WWII, these things impacted the inhabitants of this old, sturdy stone house. One day, hopefully in the far future, this house and it's past, will be forgotten and, in time, demolished but until then, any veiled glimpse of the past is, and should be, treasured.