Allan Appel Photo
On July 4, 1779, regiments of English regulars, Hessians, and Tories landed at Lighthouse Point near Fort Black Rock/Fort Nathan Hale.
Ben Greenleaf, age 14, spent Saturday night camping at the same spot with his East Haven-East Shore Boy Scout Troop 401.
On July 5, 1779, the British invaders, on their way to the New Haven Green, burned the first house they encountered, which has come to be known as the Pardee-Morris House.
East Shore Alder DeCola and NHMuseum’s Tockarshrewsky salute.
The house outlasted the British. On Sunday, Ben, age 14, was there, too, helping raise the flag at the Pardee-Morris House (rebuilt in 1780) and launching the summer season of activities at the house.
Three dozen people joined Ben for a day of Colonial games, like graces, and Colonial crafts like paper marbling, and other activities organized by the New Haven Museum, which owns and runs the historic structure.
Between now and Aug. 30 the house is open for free tours and activities, from noon to 4 p.m. Click here for a list of additional activities, dates, and times . The events include a series of Wednesday night bluegrass and folk music concerts through the summer (which begin at 7 p.m.) at the house, starting with the local New Haven group Goodnight Blue Moon on June 25.
The festivities on Sunday began with a solemn remembrance of the 17 East Shore militiamen who died defending the fort, the Morris House, and New Haven from the British invasion.
Wearing a tri-corner hat and sparkling white breaches (“I think we’re allies now,” he said of the British), East Shore Alder Sal DeCola solemnly read the names of those soldiers who died in the initial engagement on July 5.
A good many members of the group — Lt. Nathan Beers, Michael and Captain John Gilbert, Caleb, John, and Sgt. Ezekiel Hotchkiss, Samuel and Silas Woodin, Gideon Goodrich — read like names of what are now New Haven Streets.
DeCola asked for a moment of silence to commemorate those soldiers, whose memory the New Haven Museum helps keep alive through the maintaining of the Pardee-Morris House and its activities, DeCola added.
Afterwards the games and the singing ensued.
The former included “graces.” Like a lot of 18th-century amusements, it was played with simple means, and was fun.
As demonstrated by Pardee-Morris House intern Jenna Fortunati (pictured), the game involves taking a small hoop and two sticks. By applying force with the sticks, you propel the hoop high into the air to be caught by your pals.
Call it Colonial Frisbee (another New Haven game).
The singing Sunday was led by members of the Wallingford-based Connecticut Yankee Chorus, a chapter of the National Barbershop Harmony Society. Inside the house the museum director of education, Amy Durbin showed off some very contemporary art hanging in some very old spaces.
The works were yet unsold-items from the art show created by nearby Nathan Hale School students, and hung at the Pardee-Morris House.
Musuem Director of Education Durbin with new young art in an old place.
Museum Executive Director Margaret Anne Tockarshewsky called the elegant grounds, whose bright green lawns and shining white clapboard shone on a perfect sunlit afternoon, her organization’s “unofficial summer home.”
“This is our fourth season of concerts and programs, and every year our support grows,” she said.
Over the past year, critical repair and restoration work has been ongoing. Most recently, that work has included installing sump pumps, two dehumidifiers, and a new trench for drainage in the house’s basement.
“We’re making roof repairs this summer,” she added.
