T Stands for Strawberry Banke Museum

On the way to Ogunquit, Teague and I stopped at the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It's a collection of old house from the Puddle Dock neighborhood. From the website: "Today Strawbery Banke is unique among outdoor history museums, sharing change over time in the same waterfront neighborhood. The Museum interprets a long span of history, from the history of Indigenous peoples (artifacts dating back to 10,000-12,000 years ago), to the present day."

I thought the houses, one dating from 1695, were moved from their foundations and brought to this property. But this was a real neighborhood with all these old houses popping up as the neighborhood expanded.

For this T Day post various cups, tea, and coffee sets from some of the house.

Teacups and Blue Willow Ware in the Abbott House and corner store. The house was built in 1720, but the house is used to interpret life in 1943.

Listening to music while penning a letter to a sweetheart at the Front

The coffee pot is on

Relaxing with a cup of coffee and a copy of Life magazine.

A pewter coffee service at the William Pitt Tavern built in 1766. See what life was like in 1777

Listen to gossip or read what's happening while waiting for the Fly Stagecoach which traveled between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts, a mere 3 day journey.

The dining room in the Thomas Bailey Aldritch Memorial built in 1797 and shows what life was like in 1919

Thomas Bailey Aldritch was an author. His most famous work The Story of a Bad Boy. 

The house belonged to his grandfather, Thomas Bailey, and was the setting for Aldritch's novel.

"Upon his death, his widow Lilian purchased the Aldrich House and created a memorial to her husband. Each room was faithfully recreated using imagery from The Story of a Bad Boy. Thomas Bailey Aldrich House Museum opened in 1908, and Strawbery Banke restored Mrs. Aldrich's vision, which re-opened the house in the 1990s."

A curious addition to the dining room, a crossbow, arrow, and apples as an illustration of a scene from the novel:

"At the tenth representation, my dramatic career was brought to a close by an unfortunate circumstance. We were playing the drama of “William Tell, the Hero of Switzerland.” Of course I was William Tell, in spite of Fred Langdon, who wanted to act that character himself. I wouldn't let him, so he withdrew from the company, taking the only bow and arrow we had. I made a cross-bow out of a piece of whalebone, and did very well without him. We had reached that exciting scene where Gessler, the Austrian tyrant, commands Tell to shoot the apple from his son's head. Pepper Whitcomb, who played all the juvenile and women parts, was my son. To guard against mischance, a piece of pasteboard was fastened by a handkerchief over the upper portion of Whitcomb's face, while the arrow to be used was sewed up in a strip of flannel. I was a capital marksman, and the big apple, only two yards distant, turned its russet cheek fairly towards me.

I can see poor little Pepper now, as he stood without flinching, waiting for me to perform my great feat. I raised the crossbow amid the breathless silence of the crowded audience consisting of seven boys and three girls, exclusive of Kitty Collins, who insisted on paying her way in with a clothes-pin. I raised the cross-bow, I repeat. Twang! went the whipcord; but, alas! instead of hitting the apple, the arrow flew right into Pepper Whitcomb's mouth, which happened to be open at the time, and destroyed my aim.

I shall never be able to banish that awful moment from my memory. Pepper's roar, expressive of astonishment, indignation, and pain, is still ringing in my cars. I looked upon him as a corpse, and, glancing not far into the dreary future, pictured myself led forth to execution in the presence of the very same spectators then assembled.

Luckily poor Pepper was not seriously hurt; but Grandfather Nutter, appearing in the midst of the confusion (attracted by the howls of young Tell), issued an injunction against all theatricals thereafter, and the place was closed; not, however, without a farewell speech from me, in which I said that this would have been the proudest moment of my life if I hadn't hit Pepper Whitcomb in the mouth. Whereupon the audience (assisted, I am glad to state, by Pepper) cried “Hear! Hear!” I then attributed the accident to Pepper himself, whose mouth, being open at the instant I fired, acted upon the arrow much after the fashion of a whirlpool, and drew in the fatal shaft. I was about to explain how a comparatively small maelstrom could suck in the largest ship, when the curtain fell of its own accord, amid the shouts of the audience."

Built-in china storage in the dining room.

Someone scribed the initials, RB 

The garden at the Aldritch house

and the seated arbor looking towards the house from the street

If you are ever in Portsmouth, try to stop in at this unique museum. The docents are knowledgeable, friendly, and have wonderful anecdotes about the various houses. There are also reenactors, like the shopkeeper at the Corner Store who will happily chat about their business and what was happening at the time.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.