How much wood … would a colonist carve — or do anything but chuck it?
All the wood he could carve — because it was plentiful, it was inexpensive, and it was relatively easy to work. So Ridgefield’s early residents shaped wood — pine, maple, oak, chestnut — to create a remarkable variety of the objects that furnished their lives.
The tree canopy that decorates today’s Main Street is a more recent refinement. For the first settlers and their descendants, trees were meant to be used — to be cut down for building material, for firewood, or to form the objects of day-to-day living. In fact, for much of Ridgefield’s early history, we probably would have gazed on stumps or cleared fields instead of foliage. That’s one reason why — on a good day — some folks recalled that they could see all the way to Long Island Sound.
At the museum, one of our more intriguing collections consists of dozens of artifacts formed from wood. They range from the very fine — combs and mortars and pestles — to the surprisingly sizeable — three quart pitchers and a full-sized grain shovel fashioned from a single block of wood. Not to mention elaborately carved chests used to store our forebears’ limited wardrobes, accompanied by Ridgefield’s finest collection of commodes.
When you visit, you’ll see these and more — and hear three centuries’ worth of stories about the colorful personalities who created and used objects like them every day. The museum is open for guided tours on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m.