White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-08-29
SHOWS 2 CENTURIES
OF AMERICAN HOME.
Museum Has Relics Depict
ing Its Evolution.

among institutions housing the nations
historic treasures has been established
In this picturesque community whose
name figures so prominently in the
chronicles Of early American progress.
1t Is large red brick building set
on an attractively Handicapped plot d.
agonally across the street from the old
homestead Of the famed poet, Ralph
Waldo Emerson. Gifts made last year
in memory of Mr.. and Mrs. Edwin
Shepard Barrett of this town enabled
the Concord Antiquarian society to
create the novel repository.
Though offering to public view for
the first time host of relics recalling
revolutionary days, the museum was
not erected primarily for the exhibit
ton Of such objects. Its principal pur-
pose is to depict the evolution Of the
American home during the approx
mately two centuries from 1850 to
1910.
Many Priceless Antiques.
The singular beauty of the struc-
ture, known as the Concord Antiquar-
ian house, probably lies Id the fact
that it actually was built around the
rooms that it contains. Typical rooms
in Concord homesteads known to date
back to a certain period were trans
ferred intact to the new building and
installed in their original state.
Antiques, virtually all Of them gath
cred from Concord homes and many
Of them priceless, have been used in
furnishing the house, being divided
among the rooms Of the periods which
they represent A Seventeenth-centur
chest in the oldest room would easily
bring $4,000 to $4,000 If put on the
market according to antique connois-
seurS.
Possibly the outstanding feature Of
the Antiquarian house is the Elmer
son room. All during the years that
this room was part Of the poets
old homestead the public was barred
from it. Now it has been transferred
intact to the new museum, where visi-
tors will be permitted to inspect it
from a glassed-in vestibule.
Emerson's Study Reproduced.
Emersons study is exactly the same
as it was in those long-ago days when
he sat in the curved-back rocking
chair at the round table in the middle
of the floor and penned his famous
verse and essays. The books on the
many shelves that cover the farther
wall are just as he left them. His
favorite pictures decorate the walls
and here and there about the room
are little ornaments typical of the
early Eighteenth century. Emerson's
original portfolio lies on the center
table at which he worked.
Upstairs Is a tiny room dedicated
to the memory Of Henry Thoreau, es-
sayist, philosopher and naturalist. The
crude cot on which he slept during his
ack-to-nature experiment at Lake
Walden is there. On one wall hang
the deer skins that the Indians gave
him. The room also contains many of
his other belongings, including some
of the paraphernalia that he used as
surveyor.
Purely historical relics which have
been assembled at the museum include
one of the two lanterns hung in the
belfry Of Bostons Old North church
to warn Paul Revere that the British
were coming by sea; part of one Of
the original timbers of the old Con-
cord bridge, and mirror which was
broken by bullet fired during the
battle at the bridge.