Historic houses contain layered stories from the people who have lived there over decades and centuries. Historic house museums often also have additional layers of meaning and mystery created by the process of preservation and restoration. Recently Board Member Emily Taggart Schricker looked back over Elfreth’s Alley Association minutes and the logbook of the restoration of house #126 to learn more about the layers in our museum today.
In the era of social distancing, many folks are taking up new hobbies, or refreshing their skills at old tricks. Bread baking, sewing facemasks, and knitting seem to be popular among my friends, if Instagram is any indication. For those picking up their knitting needles, we recently unearthed a pattern for a cowl that takes its inspiration from the homes on Elfreth’s Alley.
At the moment, it feels like we are all grasping for some sense of normality, and in the first days working from home, I turned to the familiar sights of Elfreth’s Alley through the old familiar magic of Google StreetView. There was the street I used to walk down nearly every day, there the historical flags and the 18th-century homes. At the same time, I was trying to figure out how to share our museum with the world when our museum needed to stay shut and the world, for the most part, needed to stay home.
I took to Instagram, and began posting prompts for a Google StreetView scavenger hunt.
