old sturbridge village
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Online Tour

Bank Friends Meetinghouse Center Meetinghouse Knight Store Town Pound Shoe Shop Richardson Parsonage Tin Shop Cider Mill Printing Office Salem Towne House Covered Bridge Law Office Fenno House Fitch House

Center Village

Map of the Center Village

At the heart of the early 19th-century community was the center village, with houses, shops, stores, and meetinghouses clustered around a common.

To tour the Center Village, you can click on the map above to visit the exhibit. You may also visit an exhibit by clicking on the images below.

Friends Meetinghouse: Members of the Society of Friends were also called Quakers, a minority in rural New England with a distinctive way of life.
 
Center Meetinghouse: Worshippers went to the meetinghouse for lengthy Sunday services; meetinghouses also served as centers for town meetings, elections, lectures, and political events.
 
Tin Shop: In the 1830s, tin shops began to appear in New England center villages. Tinware competed successfully with pottery and was sold directly from the shops, sent to local stores, or marketed by peddlers.
 
Salem Towne House: This handsome Federal-style dwelling and its setting reflect the domestic life and agricultural activity of a prosperous farmer's household. Family members would have been among the community leaders.
 
Law Office: Country lawyers practiced in their homes. A rural law practice usually dealt with property litigation, inheritance, and debt collection in small, freestanding offices like this one.
 
Parsonage: This mid-18th-century "lean-to" house is interpreted as the home of a Congregational minister and his family.
 
Asa Knight Store: The country store was a crucial link between the local community and the wider world. The storekeeper provided manufactured American and imported goods and took farm produce and local wares in exchange.
 
Thompson Bank: Serving several towns, country banks issued their own bank notes and made loans to merchants, farmers, and manufacturers.
 
Fenno House: This early 18th-century structure is interpreted as the home of an elderly widow and her unmarried daughter.
 
Fitch House: This house is furnished as the residence of a country printer's family. Started in the early 18th century, it has additions dating into the 1820s.
 
Printing Office: Rural printing offices printed, bound, and sold books for a growing national market. For the local community, the printer produced broadsides, bills, and pamphlets.
 
Cider Mill: Cider mills, found in almost every New England community, used horsepower to press apples into cider, the region's favorite domestic beverage.
 
Shoe Shop: Small shops like this one were part of a fast-growing industry that produced large quantities of footwear for distant markets.
 
Town Pound: Built by the town, pounds confined livestock found running at large or in other farmers' fields until they could be reclaimed by their owners.