Monday, July 11, 2022

Mumford, New York: Genesee Country Village & Museum

When visitors come in to the main portion of the Genesee Country Village in Mumford, they are told that they are leaving the 21st century to go to the 19th century - except that the bathrooms are still from the 21st century. That sounds like the only way to travel back through time.

When they enter, it's easy to imagine what life might have been like in the 1800s, at least in certain ways. It's an interesting way of learning history.

Genesee Country Village came along in 1966. The idea was to preserve the architecture of the area in one place, and hopefully supply a little context to the history of the region. One thing led to another, and now it's quite a complex. 

Visitors first go through the admissions area, and are greeted by the "Great Meadow" - with a great gazebo right in the middle of it surrounded by something of a pasture. There's a circular road to define the boundaries of the Meadow, with a museum and restaurant among the places on the perimeter. Then they cross through the Toll House to enter the actual village, which is roughly four blocks by five blocks in size. 

If you've been to places like Williamsburg, you know that the organizers wanted to freeze a particular period in time. This is a little different. Here there are three different time periods covered: the Pioneer Settlement Era of the 1780s to 1830s, the Center Village of the 1830s to the 1960s, and the Gaslight District of the 1870s to 1920s. That helps make this particular set-up more interesting.

The actual buildings were moved here from various places in nearby locations. In other words, the Nathaniel Rochester House of Dansville was physically moved here. Yes, Mr. Rochester lent his name to a little stretch of land along the Genesee River that no doubt surprised him at some point about the amount of growth involved. George Eastman's childhood house also is here, although it's certainly not as impressive as his adult home in Rochester. That's a must-stop for tourists in that city. 

Outside of some homes, the village has a number of business structures. Let's see - there's an inn, dressmaker, potterymaker, workworking, church, town hall, and so forth. Most of the buildings have workers in costume inside. They can answer questions about how the building was used, and a few even do some 19th-century style projects between visitors. 

During our visit on a Sunday summer afternoon, the facility wasn't too crowded at all. That helped make the stay more pleasant, although we did wonder if there were enough people paying admission to keep the business in operations. We guessed that the special events, like the Civil War History Weekend and the Celtic Faire weekend, would be the major draws during the year. 

There was one event that caught our eyes, and prompted a visit. GCV hosts exhibition baseball games in the far corner of the village on some weekend afternoon. Here's the catch: The games are played under 1868 rules. That means no gloves and softer baseballs for starters, along with some long forgotten rules. Baseball fans certainly would enjoy the chance to see the game's origins in person this way. The photo above shows an umpire signalling "fair ball" on a hit down the left field line. 

There are some nice nature trails on the grounds near the village. GCV currently is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and we had little trouble staying for the entire day when the two-hour baseball game was included. As these things go, there's a good chance you'll enjoy it if you have enough interest in local history to pay admission.

Here's a video from 2018 to tell you more about Genesee Country Village: