Published: May 08, 2008 06:44 pm         

CHILDS: New exhibit to be unveiled Mother's Day

The Cobblestone Museum will show off its National Historic Landmark buildings Sunday at the annual open house.

Visitors can drop in for a stroll along the open air museum’s well-kept grounds between 1 and 5 p.m. Admission is free.

On Route 104, you can tour the Cobblestone Church where railway car industrialist George M. Pullman prayed during the 1840s and ’50s, the tiny Ward House with Victorian era interior decorations (no electric appliances here), and the Cobblestone School, complete with wooden desks and blackboards.

A short walk away on Route 98 is the Blacksmith Shop where Joseph Vagg made horseshoes for nearly 50 years, the 1838 Harness Shop with original artifacts, and the Print Shop once located in Medina. The bright yellow Farmers Hall, formerly the Kendall Town Hall, was built in 1855 for use as a Universalist church. There you will find the tools used by farmers in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Upper Gallery of the 1836 Brick House has the season’s newest exhibit, “Saints Who From their Labors Rest,” which will be unveiled for the first time.

Paintings, prints, shadow boxes and statuettes depicting saints, all from museum Director C.W. Lattin’s personal collection, adorn the exhibit walls. It is the second exhibit since the gallery’s opening June 15. Last year’s “Victorian Angels” exhibit was a huge hit, he said.

“Saints” will be open to the public through the season’s end in October. An old-fashioned Halloween bash for youth is in the works to officially close the exhibit.

“For the most part, all of these prints would have been owned by 19th century Roman Catholic families — except for some,” Lattin said Wednesday during a walk through with The Journal-Register.

There is a copy of Correggio’s painting of Magdalena depicting a suggestive Mary Magdalene near her classic symbol, an alabaster jar of perfume — that would have been accepted in a Protestant home, Lattin said — as would the copy of an engraving by Raphael, “The Ecstasy of St. Cecelia.” She is pictured holding an instrument, as the patron saint of music.

The devotional shadow boxes containing statuettes of saints or Mother Mary would have been used by a Roman Catholic, judging by the small prayer candles at their base.

Also worth noting is the 1890s wooden shutter and the framed saints printed on metal.

“It gives the effect (that) they are more like paintings than they are prints,” Lattin said. The other pieces in the exhibit will be labeled with background information for easy viewing.

Volunteers will be stationed at each of the museum’s buildings to act as tour guides and answer questions.

Newcomers at the Open House will learn that cobblestone masonry construction used either field or lake stones. There are more standing cobblestone structures in New York state than anywhere else in the world, Lattin said. A few “antecedents” remain in Europe.

Students from across the region who tour the museum every year are always, surprisingly, attentive and fascinated by the authentic interiors, Lattin said.

“We live in a highly technological age,” he said. “This generation doesn’t have the personal interaction experience ... because they’re in front of screens.”

“Everything old is new again.”

Next year, the Upper Gallery will feature the exhibit “Certified” consisting of death, wedding and birth certificates. The mourning art exhibit “Designs for Death” located in the basement of the Cobblestone Church will come down in July. “Launched and Life,” an exhibit of artifacts from early 20th and late 19th century weddings, will take its place. Lattin may create a booklet containing pictures of brides for this purpose.

Lattin owns approximately 600 Victorian and religious prints and has plans for years of exhibits without repetition.

Regular visiting hours will run from June 23 to Labor Day 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is $3.50 for adults, $3 for seniors and $2 for individual students. Group tours, with Lattin as the experienced guide, are available by appointment. Although no longer functioning, the church is available for weddings.

The museum opened in 1960 with the intent to preserve the church. A year later, the founding members acquired the school for $129. Since then, it has grown dramatically. A long-range committee and finance committee began meeting for the first time after Jan. 1 to plan for future additions.

“What we are holding onto here is something so many places have given up,” Lattin said. “(Cobblestones are) one of the things that makes our culture historically unique. ... They are truly expressive of our region.”

C.W. Lattin has been the museum director since 1971. He is also the county historian and a published author. He writes a weekly column for The Journal-Register, “Bethinking of Olde Orleans.”

Contact reporter Nicole Colemanat 798-1400, ext. 2227.