We started with Abram's Delight which was an old house that Abraham Hollingsworth built after moving to Winchester in 1728. It was passed from generation to generation for over 150 years before it was finally abandoned. We had a lively guide who loved answering our questions. She gave us the tour of the house showing where it had been improved and expanded and gave a great history of the house and its inhabitants. Unfortunately, all three museums forbade the use of cameras so we don't have any picture of the interior of Abram's Delight or the other two museums. Abram's Delight represented the ideal peaceful life of Winchester. One that stands in stark contrast to the other two museums that we would soon visit.
Next up was Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters. This is where Stonewall Jackson spent the winter of 1861-1862. It has many pieces of furniture and memorabilia, including his prayer book. We were given the tour by an elderly lady who was dressed in period clothes. She was very knowledgeable, but mainly stuck to her script. She told many little anecdotes about the time, one being the true color of his hair: most paintings give him a black or dark brown color, when in fact it was a light brown. We finished the second museum just in time to eat lunch.
We decided to come back to George Washington later in the day and first head over to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. This is a museum, not of war (although it did show the war) but of the valley itself. The people, the farming, and the simple life of the Shenandoah Valley. They had many portraits of people who had lived in the valley, they had a great miniatures gallery, and a traveling exhibit showcasing a collection of Mort Kunstler's paintings. By far his best piece was "Washington's Crossing". When asked to do this re-imagining of what is perhaps the most famous picture of the Revolutionary War, Mort asked what he was supposed to do "have Washington go left to right?" In the end he created a stunning picture of Washington in what is considered a more historically accurate image of the crossing.
The Museum was quite large and took about an hour to get through. We could have taken longer but there was much left to see outside, where the Glen Burnie house and gardens were located. The house and gardens were lovely and they had an audio tour that the kids enjoyed. Inside the Glen Burnie House was the even more exciting Glen Burnie Miniature House: a duplicate of the house we were standing in. No, I couldn't see inside the miniature house to see if another miniature was inside that one. It took another hour to tour the house and gardens, which once again, could have taken longer, but we walked fast so we could hurry back to town in time to see Washington's Office.
Once back in town, we went to Washington's Office. This was by far the smallest museum, with 3 rooms (one of which was a gift shop). There wasn't a guide, but the person working the gift shop was so glad to see us that she gave us a tour of the office. This was where Washington was first stationed during the French and Indian War. Thanks to his work as a surveyor in Winchester, he knew the area better than anybody else. His first charge was to build Fort Loudoun. Unfortunately, it has since been torn down. The museum was very small, but it had a nice miniature of the city during Washington's time and a block puzzle of Fort Loudoun that the kids enjoyed putting together.
Last was the old Courthouse of Winchester. This is located in Old Town Winchester an out door mall with mostly local shops and restaurants. In the center is the old Courthouse which was used as a hospital and prison during the Civil War. It was said that the town changed hands 72 times during the course of the war, and sometimes the only way to tell who controlled the city was by going to this courthouse to see which flag was flying that day.
The lady at the Courthouse gave a quick overview and commented (as had several other people) that we must home-school, because our kids were well behaved. The Courthouse is also home to the Jeff Davis Curse. Because it was a prison, many people would scribble graffiti into the walls. One northern soldier was particularly flowery with his denunciation of the South and particularly its President.
To Jeff Davis, may he be set afloat on a boat without compass or rudder then that any contents be swallowed by a shark, the shark by a whale, the whale in the devil's belly, and the devil in hell, the gates locked and the key lost. And further, may he be put in the north west corner with a south east wind blowing ashes in his eyes for all eternity.
Other than that the Courthouse had hundreds of items from the civil war, bullets, maps, rifles, cannons and more. They even let us ring the tower bell. We finished that near 5:00pm and decided it was time to head back to the cabin. After dinner, we all played a round of Carcassonne.
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