Sheldon Museum hosts LaValley, Eagle exhibit
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By Gordon Dritschilo Staff Writer - Published: March 9, 2009
MIDDLEBURY — One subject of the new exhibit at the Henry Sheldon Museum is lost to time. Another is frozen in it.
The Eagle Inn no longer stands in Orwell, according to museum executive director Jan Albers, surviving only in photographs. On the other hand, she said, the LaValley Store in Cornwall, a general store that operated until the 1930s, still has everything that was in it when it closed.
"It's an extraordinary time capsule, but it's kind of in danger as a building," she said. "The Cornwall Historical Society has been working on how best to preserve that site."
The Eagle Inn and the LaValley Store are part of an exhibit that opened this week at the museum titled "Town Treasure: The Local History Show." It features displays contributed by 14 different historical societies in Addison County.
"We had been talking for a long time about the fact that the Sheldon Museum is really a regional museum," Albers said.
The area has a lot of active historical societies, she said, and the museum regularly advises them on preservation and similar subjects.
The exhibit was conceived, in part, as an alternative for historical societies in the western part of the state that might not want to make the trip to Tunbridge for the annual Vermont History Expo.
Albers said thought also went into the exhibit's timing. While the museum gets many out-of-town tourists in other seasons, she said winter is when it has the most local visitors.
"It seemed like a good time to bring everyone together," she said.
One exhibit outlines the history of the Crown Point Bridge. Another covers the Bristol coffin factory.
"That was one of the biggest industries in 19th-century Bristol," Albers said. "It was one of the biggest coffin factories in New England."
Bridport contributed a model of a wagon train that carried Vermonters to settle in Illinois in 1836, along with a map of the route. Many towns contributed photos of groups of children standing in front of one-room schoolhouses.
"In some, the kids look prosperous," Albers said. "Other schools, they don't have any shoes. … You can see what a hardscrabble life it was in some of the poorer regions."
The exhibit runs through April 17. The museum's hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission if $5 for adults, $3 for youth aged 6 to 18, $4.50 for seniors and $12 for families. During the exhibit, Addison County residents get free admission on Tuesdays.
The museum will host a brown-bag lunch discussion March 10 on the LaValley Store and another April 14 on the Crown Point Bridge. Both events are at noon.
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
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