THE PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM CONTINUES ITS 2019 SEASON OF “A PERFECT SPOT OF TEA” WITH A PERFORMANCE BY DANSE CAFÉ ON SATURDAY, JULY 20th
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum continues its 2019 series of “A PERFECT SPOT OF TEA” on Saturday, July 20th with a performance by Danse Café. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum invites guests to partake in its 250 year old tradition of afternoon tea with good company, interesting conversation, and lively music. Admission is $12 per person. There are seatings at 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. For an additional fee, guests may also tour the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum. Tours will be every hour on the half hour; at 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30.
Danse Café performs traditional dance music from France and Brittany. Their performance will include lively tunes for Breton line dances such as the an dro, hanter dro, gavotte, and rond, energetic bourrées and scottishes from the Auvergne, slinky mazurkas from the Occitan, French circle dances, and waltzes, both 3 and 5 beat. The group includes Cynthia Thomas on the fiddle, Doug Feeney on the guitar and banjo, Peter Stolley on the accordion, and Thomas Gajewski on the clarinet and mandolin.
Elizabeth Porter Phelps, a resident of the house from its construction in 1752, regularly hosted teas until her death in 1817, and noted the teas often attracted ten to fifteen couples weekly. Elizabeth’s daughter met her future husband, Dan Huntington, at one of these events. Visitors would “tarry” a while over a beverage that “cheers but not inebriates.”
The series is made possible through generous donations from area musicians, volunteer servers, restaurants, grocers, florists, and other businesses who provide the music, engagement, tea, pastries, and flowers for this program.
The “A Perfect Spot of Tea” series continues on Saturday, July 27th, with instrumental jazz, pop, and original songs performed by Peter West and Burt Jackson.
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive (Route 47) in Hadley, two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47. The Museum is open for guided tours Saturday through Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The house, which remains unchanged since the family’s occupancy, tells the story of six generations of prominent Hadley residents. The family, prosperous traders turned farmers, fought in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, rose to prominence in local government, and embodied a consistently progressive social consciousness. Tours highlight both local and regional narratives, from architecture, material culture, and labor, to early-American theology, economics, women’s history and social movements. For further information about tours or other programs, please call the Museum at (413) 584-4699 or visit our website at http://www.pphmuseum.org