Genesee Country Village: Where the Past Comes Alive

Our great country has so many hidden “jewels” and Genesee Country Village is one of them. Officially named Genesee Country Village & Museum, it’s a historic model recreation of America’s past that comes alive in a 600-acre pastoral park-like setting. On my recent trip to western New York, my brother, Glenn, and I drove over to the hamlet of Mumford to tour this treasure and see the past come alive first hand.

Conceived and founded in 1966 by Jack Wehle, for 10 years a team of architectural historians, carpenters and masons worked to restore homes and buildings found across rural western New York. Trucking 68 homes and buildings to this site, they meticulously restored, refurbished, repurposed, reconstructed each – the ultimate “green” living museum.

Both a static museum and a “living” museum, Genesee Country Village allows visitors to walk the grounds and experience what America’s late 18th and early 19th centuries were like during 3 specific eras:

Pioneer days (1780’s to 1830’s)
The Antebellum period (1830’s to 1860’s)
The Turn-of-the-Century (1870’s to 1920’s)

With homes and buildings from all three eras, Genesee Country Village has volunteer interpreters, dressed in period costumes, at the ready sharing historical information with willing visitors. I say “willing” visitors, because a few times when my brother and I were in a particular home or building, visitors would come through and tell the interpreters “no”, they weren’t interested in learning more! An interesting way to tour a historically rendered property, don’t you think? Not sure why they bothered, but I digress…{grin}…

Many of the volunteers are craftsman, recreating the wares and products of the era – beer/ale making (they grow their own hops!), soap making, quilting, weaving, pottery, tinsmithing, blacksmithing, coopering, fabric dyeing and more. Visitors can stay for the day or spend a weekend onsite living the pioneer experience.

Throughout the year, special events dot the calendar. Historic “dining experiences” are available on select days for lunch, afternoon tea and dinner at the Hosmer’s Inn and the Livingston-Backus Garden House. So popular are the Hosmer’s Inn dinners, they sell out quickly!

Weather permitting, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, you can take a ride in The Intrepid, a replica of the Civil War-era hot air balloon of the same name.

If you are a lover of history, don’t miss an opportunity to see life in this lovely village unfold around you in western New York – Genesee Country Village: Where the Past Comes Alive. My photos don’t do it justice: