Cape Cod Church Visit

Our road trip stops usually include museums and local places of interest, but very few places of worship. However, we visited a most unusual church on our July road trip to  Cape Cod, MA. The Church of the Transfiguration is a contemporary expression of a Fourth century basilica. It was an unexpected visit, which I read about in a local brochure. 

So on a rainy afternoon, we were given a tour given by one of the resident sisters. These tours are scheduled at various times during the day and we made the last one of that day. 

The church buildings were constructed from Minnesota limestone and completed in 2000. It took 11 more years to complete the inside artwork. After we entered the church, we soon knew why, and you will too.

The Church of the Transformation common area, The Green

The Church of the transfiguration stands at the spiritual center of the Community of Jesus, an ecumenical Christian community in the Benedictine monastic tradition that has been on the shores of Cape Cod for over 40 years. Daily prayer and worship services include Holy Eucharist, Liturgy of the Hours (sung in Gregorian chant) and choral Evensong.

The church interior is filled with hand-crafted mosaic and frescoes as well as glass and stone artwork.

The Atrium serves as the main entrance to The Church of the Transfiguration

Our guide led us along The Green, a common area, until we arrived at the Atrium. This courtyard surrounded by three covered walkways is the main entry to the church. This area serves as a gathering space that celebrates and gives thanks for creation, and also as a transitional space of preparation for worship upon entering the church.

Adam and Eve carved on bronze doors

The story of creation culminates at the doors of the atrium, with the sculpted images of Adam and Eve on carved bronze doors standing under the shade of the Tree of Life. The bronze doors were done by Romolo Del Deo, an American sculptor and artist, best known for his bronze sculptures that put a contemporary spin on the classical.

Baptismal font at the church entrance

The baptismal font is made of marble, bronze and glass and is quite beautiful. The candle visible above was hand poured by one of the resident sisters. It was beautiful, but I neglected to get a close image.

The mosaic floor tiles are hand cut marble and depict the Tree of Life. Some of the tiles refected New England wildlife and marine life such as whales, dolphins and horseshoe crabs. The fruits of the Holy Land are on the left and the fruits of Cape Cod are on the right. Together they make up the Fruit of the Spirit.

The Church of the Transfiguration altar

The mosaic tiles used in the area surrounding the altar consist of hand cut pieces of glass. We learned that each piece was individually laid in place.

Some of the tiles were very whimsical and included a dragon, unicorn and horse as well as other animals. 

The frescos along both side walls were all hand painted and represent scenes from the life of Christ, interspersed with a procession of saints to New Jerusalem. Italian artist Silvestro Pistolesi  used local residents as models for the initial drawings.

100-foot bell tower with 10 bells

The 100-foot bell tower houses a set of 10 bronze bells, which were cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, England. This foundry also cast Big Ben and the Liberty Bell and provided the bells for the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London.

The angel sculpture atop the bell tower was fashioned after the angels of the seven churches of the Book of Revelation. 

In keeping with the theme of the angel, seven of the bells are named for churches in Asia to whom the letters were sent via their angels: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The other three bells are named for local churches and towns: Orleans, Eastham and the Community of Jesus.

Unfortunately, the bells were not rung during our late afternoon visit, perhaps another time.

There is a gift shop on the church grounds which sells products made by the sisters and brothers who reside on the church grounds. While I'm unsure of the exact number, about 25 celibate brothers live in the Zion Friary and 60 celibate sisters live in the Bethany Convent. Products sold in the gift store included music CDs recorded in the church, homemade jam, granola, mustard and soap. My purchases were soap and mustard.

Church of the Transfiguration interior views

According to the church website, the 200 professed Community of Jesus members come from a wide variety of denominational backgrounds and occupations, and include celibate brothers and sisters, married couples, and single adults. 

This photo collage shows other things we did during our 3-day Cape Cod road trip, a getaway to celebrate Grenville's 🎂birthday. We went to a nearby beach area, took a narrated excursion ride on the Cape Cod Central Railway, enjoyed breakfast at The Pancake Man, and ice cream at Penguins Ice Cream where else?

Thanks to everyone for your condolences on the recent passing of my friend and of a fellow blogger. 

Your kind tcomments were appreciated.

Rainy Days & Cape Cod

A popular New England destination, Cape Cod is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S. It was named in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold an English barrister, explorer and privateer after fish seen in the surrounding waters. He also discovered Martha's Vineyard which he named after the wild grapes that covered the land and his late daughter, Martha.

This area is known for many things, such as the seashore, cranberry bogs, salt marshes, historic lighthouses, the Edward Gorey house, the movie Jaws, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and its connection to the Kennedy family. Singer Patti Page popularized it in the 1957 hit song Old Cape Cod, considered the unofficial Cape Cod anthem. (Page recorded it in NYC but didn't visit the area until after the song became a hit.)

Last week we spent several days on the Cape in Yarmouth, MA, on a getaway celebrating Grenville's birthday. (Thanks to all for the 🎂 well wishes.) He planned to spend several beach time mornings. But, Mother Nature didn't get the message and he only had one beach morning, rainy days the remaining two. When the weather is uncooperative, plans change. What to do on a rainy day? Stay indoors and visit a couple of nearby museums, where we learned a lot of interesting things new to us.

French Cable Station Museum, Orleans, MA

Our first stop was The French Cable Station Museum in Orleans, MA. This unassuming building is on a busy main street near downtown and its look disguises its historical importance. It features displays of Atlantic undersea telegraphic cables, instruments, maps, and memorabilia.

Sample of underwater cable

It was built in 1891 by the French Cable Company, which was installing numerous cables in Cape Cod throughout the late 19th century. By 1898, the station was the end point of a 3,200-mile-long trans-Atlantic telegraph cable called "Le Direct" that allowed communication between the U.S. and France. When France surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1940, it was taken over by the federal government for security reasons during WW II. It was returned to the company and resumed operations in 1952 and finally closed in 1959.

In 1972, a group of prominent Orleans residents raised funds to purchase the station from France, and repurpose it as a museum. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places that year. Fortunately the building and its equipment were preserved. Many of the items remain functional and can be tried by visitors. Admission is free; donations are welcomed. On average, about 1,000 people visit the museum each year. 

Visitors can go through the small museum to explore equipment original to the station. Photos, newspaper clippings and other items further document the station's history.

Volunteers staff the museum which features four rooms: Superintendent's office, Operations room, Testing room, and Repair room.

Superintendent's Desk

Walls in the superintendent’s office are covered with photos and news articles of major events in the station's history. Some of these were given to the museum by the Smithsonian Institute. There's also an early copy machine. Every letter written was copied before being sent and this was in the days before photo copies.

Operations Room as it looks today

The operations room was the nucleus of the cable station. It was where messages were received from France, recorded, and re-transmitted to the rest of the country. Most of the equipment here remains functional even today.

In 1927, the message that aviator Charles Lindbergh had landed in Paris came through this station from Paris and was then sent out to the rest of the U.S.

Cable examples, some showing deterioration

The testing room holds equipment that was used to determine the location of a fault or break in the cable. We were told that some of the equipment is still operational and one is quite unique

Heurtley Magnifier, only 1 of 3 still in existence worldwide

The Heurtley Magnifier was developed before vacuum tubes and was used to amplify the weak signal coming from France. It's only one of only three in the world today. 

As its name implies, the repair room housed equipment used to repair the cable and equipment. The room has samples of early submarine telegraph cable and cables that had been under water for years. There also were photos of a repair operation at sea.

We were surprised to learn how much history was contained in this somewhat small house. It was definitely worth a stop and the volunteer member was very informative. There were only a couple of other visitors, so we were not rushed; a good thing on a rainy day.

Marconi-RCA Wireless Museum, Chatham, MA

As if exploring a telegraph station wasn't unique enough, our next stop was at the Marconi-RCA Wireless Museum in North Chatham, MA. Here we learned about how radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi was first involved with wireless transmission in New England and later how ship-to-shore radio played a prominent role.

Dubbed The World’s Greatest Coastal Station, this building was once home to the largest U.S. ship-to-shore radiotelegraph station, known to mariners worldwide as Chatham Radio, WCC. 

Guglielmo Marconi

Its history dates to 1914, with Marconi,  the Italian inventor and electrical engineer, whose Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America continued to pursue the promise of intercontinental wireless with construction of five great high-power stations on the East and West coasts. The company built a wireless receiving station here paired with a transmitting station in Marion, MA, to provide commercial point-to-point radio service between the U.S. and Norway. 

The outbreak of WW I in Europe crippled the Company's interests in America and the facility could not initiate operations. The Massachusetts facilities were incomplete, wireless equipment being manufactured by the parent company in England did not arrive. By the end of WW I, the U.S. had entered a period of isolationism, Marconi’s UK-based company was not welcome and with the intervention of the U.S. government, Marconi’s American assets were acquired by the newly created Radio Corporation of America.  

RCA opened the Massachusetts station in 1920, with circuits to Norway and Germany. Later, the company consolidated its transatlantic operations at a new station on Long Island. Chatham’s transatlantic operations ceased. 

Chatham, MA, 1922 (Internet source)

In April 1921, RCA began maritime service, adapting and improving the existing long-distance facilities to the business of communicating with ships at sea with call letters WCC. First called Marion Radio, it became known as Chatham Radio in the 1930s. 

1920s company advertisement for Chatham/WCC

RCA’s Chatham station was soon recognized as the largest U.S. coastal station.  The conversion of a high-power intercontinental station to expansive maritime operations was a first for RCA. 

Exhibit showing U.S. Navy at Station C

From 1942 through 1945, Chatham Radio played a key role in WW II by helping to defeat Germany during the Battle of the Atlantic. The station intercepted Enigma-encrypted wireless messages from enemy surface vessels and submarines. “Station C” (its US Navy wartime designation) forwarded the intercepts to Washington, DC, for decoding. As control station for the East Coast direction-finding network, Station C also directed the search for telltale radio signals that allowed enemy vessels to be located and tracked.  

In addition to relaying commercial and personal messages to ships, Chatham/WCC providedcommunications to aviators and adventurers such as Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes. Wireless communication ended isolation at sea and also helped to save many lives.  

At its peak, Chatham Radio/WCC was the largest U.S. coastal station worldwide until 1997, when it fell victim to the advancements of modern communication technology.

Shipboard Radio from S.S. Hope

The museum offers informative displays, interactive exhibits and original videos. Permanent exhibits include videos about the life and legacy of Guglielmo Marconi, the role of maritime radio in world events, the authentic working shipboard radio from the hospital ship SS Hope, and artifacts from important periods in WCC's history. Visitors can practice Morse code. The museum’s Navy Years exhibit includes working WW II Enigma cipher machine simulators to let visitors try message encryption.

Since I mentioned the 1957 song (written by Claire Rothrock, Milton Yakus and Allan Jeffrey)popularized by singer Patti Page, you can listen to Old Cape Cod (apologies for the ear worm). While it's been recorded by other artists including Bing Crosby, Jerry Vale, The Four Freshman, Bette Midler and Anne Murray among others. Page's version warned a Gold Record.

If you like the taste of a lobster stew,

Served by a window with an ocean view,

You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.

This was the first of our two days of rainy day explorations. The second was not to any museums, but quite different and will be shared in a future post.

Medfield Insane Asylum (MA)

This post is about a road trip to the site of a former MA insane asylum last fall. Mental illness was and continues to be a serious issue that affects many. No disrespect is intended for anyone who has suffered or knows someone dealing from any forms of this illness. In the 1950s, my maternal grandmother was hospitalized for many years in a NJ facility.

There may be no other place in the country where you can freely explore the exterior (only) of an abandoned psychiatric hospital. However, here in New England, you can walk the grounds of the shuttered former Medfield Insane Asylum, later renamed Medfield State Hospital in MA. This is a lengthy post as the history of this site was interesting and sad in so many ways.

Former Medfield Insane Asylum, 2018 aerial view (online)

The above overview shows the size of the former Medfield Insane Asylum located just outside the town of Medfield, MA. 

Medfield became a state hospital in 1914

Everyone can freely walk here, but only during daylight hours. Just don't try to enter any of the buildings. They're all boarded up and there's an onsite security patrol.

On second thought, why would you even want to try? Years of neglect and vandals have taken their toll, there's unsafe conditions. Many buildings have markings to let firefighters know the flooring is unsafe. Still, you can find many online videos of those who have trespassed.

We considered our short visit an amazing experience which led me to learn more about the long history of this now abandoned hospital.

All of the buildings display signs like: Do Not Enter, Watch Out for Cancer, and Your Risk, Not Ours. During the day, you can stroll along the roadways that wind between them, walking at your leisure right past these now vacant structures. Windows are shuttered with red-painted plywood, some steps are crumbling. There's some very unique architecture to see here.

We saw fewer than a dozen other folks during our walk around the grounds, some with small children in tow, other walking dogs. The town of Medfield has opened the site as a public space. It was a short road trip, just over an hour car ride from Nashua, NH, on a beautiful late fall day.At its height, the site encompassed almost 1,000 acres. While the farm area and some buildings are gone, the campus is large with over two dozen structures remaining, all built of matching red brick, most with unique features including porches and numerous windows as shown above.

How It Started

The former Medfield Insane Asylum was a psychiatric hospital complex that opened in 1896 as the state’s first facility for dealing with chronic mental patients. The state legislature appropriated $25,000 towards the purchase of 425 acres and $500,000 for building construction. It was authorized as a 1,000-bed hospital for the care of chronic and incurable cases of the insane.

1896 illustration of Medfield Insane Asylum (online)

By May 1896, 12 buildings were completed to accommodate 600 patients. The first 60 men and 60 women were admitted later that month, by September, there were 563 patients.

It always amazes me just how much information can be found online, such as The First Annual Report of the Medfield Insane Asylum for the year ending 1896, which covered the first 5 months of operation. It is available online from the State of Massachusetts archives and reveals a lot of information, here are some excerpts taken directly from that report: 

As the year for the institutions in Massachusetts ends with September 30, this report is neces- sarily short and includes only five months, the time elapsing since it was opened. The work of cleaning, furnishing and otherwise preparing the different buildings was begun March 1, and was pushed forward as rapidly as possible.Twelve of the cottages for patients were ready to be put in order while six others designed for the filthy and more disturbed classes were in process.

The really great work of organizing and opening a large asylum has been carried on in a manner satisfactory to the trustees and creditable to the superintendent. This work was rendered more perplexing from the fact that the whole plan of administration was a new one in this State. The daily routine of the patients transferred was entirely different from that to which they had been accustomed, many of them for years, and they found it difficult easily to accommodate themselves to the change. In addition to this, building operations have been carried on through the year. This has been an important factor as a disturbing element, adding to the natural excitement of the patients incident to their removal to a new home. The friction and discomfort arising from these causes are, however, becoming less every day.

The cottage plan adopted in the construction gives a much better opportunity for the classification of all forms of insanity than is afforded by any hospital in the State.

The expenses of the institution shall not exceed $2.80 per week for each patient. This sum can be sufficient only when the asylum has become well established, with at least two-thirds of its complement of inmates . This report covers the first five months since the asylum was opened, with the number of patients varying from 120 to 596, and the expenses for this period and for the month of March, during which the buildings were made ready for occupancy, has been $3.21 per patient. Expenses during the summer are always less than during the winter, when the item of fuel adds considerably to the expenditures.

Any success which is achieved in the management of an asylum for the insane requires, on the part of those in charge, unceasing diligence, an unlimited amount of patience and never-failing kindness in manner and speech towards the unfortunate inmates.

That first annual report also listed these annual salaries: superintendent $2,500; assistant physicians $1,500 and $900, engineer $1,000, bookkeeper $600, Treasurer $500, and matron $400. No information was listed for attendants, whose salaries were undoubtedly much less.

Women patients at Medfield: Medfield Historical Society source

Six additional buildings with wards for untidy, excited, and epileptic patients were completed in early 1897, boosting patient capacity to 1,100. By year end, Medfield Insane Asylum had 961 patients. Many had been transferred from other institutions and classified as old, sick, feeble, filthy in their habits. (Original terms used for patient conditions.)

Life in an Asylum

Insane asylums, also called lunatic asylums/funny farms by insensitive people, were established in the U.S. in the mid-1800s often to replace poorhouses and housed many considered unfit to live with others. Here's some of the actual physical and mental admission causes listed in the Annual Report: epilepsy, fever, fall, masturbation, heredity, ill health, menopause, nervous prostration, domestic affliction, financial troubles, jealousy, religious excitement, worry, hysteria, syphilis, sunstroke, intemperance, overwork, unknown. There were also those with actual mental health issues, schizophrenia to manic-depression (known as bi-popular disorder) and some criminals. While the report contained a column for voluntary, none were listed there. 

Some patients admitted to Medfield were never diagnosed, but placed there by families who used the asylum to house unwanted relatives. Sadly, a common practice in the 1800-1900s.

According to the Annual Report cited above: There have been discharged 13 patients; 2 were improved and 11 were not improved. Eight of these were transferred to other institutions by orders from the State Board of Lunacy and Charity. There were 24 deaths. When we consider the feeble condition of many of these patients, and that in some cases death was a " foregone conclusion" when they were admitted, and the fact that the change of habits and environment of elderly demented patients often hastens a fatal termination, it is not excessive. All those that eloped have been returned except one, who was arrested as a vagrant in a neighboring town and committed to another lunatic hospital.

It was no surprise to learn that the asylum had many fatal incidents. In 1897, a patient, seriously burned after being left unattended in a tub of hot water, later died; the attendant was discharged. In December that year, a woman escaped, despite efforts to track her in the snow, her body was found in February. In 1916, a woman in the ward for violent patients was killed by another female inmate when an attendant left the room (a New York Times article reported the murder was committed with a heavy iron polisher). In 1916, three attendants were arrested and charged with a patient's murder. One was found guilty and sentenced to 3 years, the other two were dismissed. There were reported incidents of racial discrimination as well.

Internet source

Being committed to an insane asylum was akin to being imprisoned and was often a life sentence, many inmates never had visitors. If they died without a burial location, bodies were either donated to medical schools or buried in the Vine Lake Cemetery in Medfield. Those burials stopped in 1918 when the area was hit with the influenza epidemic. It spread to 308 patients and 55 died in a month and, with town pressure, a state hospital cemetery was built at the height of the epidemic. (The Medfield State Hospital Cemetery, which we didn't visit, contains the remains of 841 patients and is in a field about a half mile from the hospital.)

Cottages for Men (top) and Women (bottom) - Medfield Historical Society source

The college-like campus was designed by Boston architect William Pitt Wentworth, a Vermont native. Buildings were designed around a quadrangle, that resembled a New England town common and were constructed in several styles: Greek Revival, Queen Anne, and Beaux Arts. Wentworth was a noted progressive architect of hospitals; this was one of his last major projects before his 1896 death at age 59. (While there are many photos of the hospital buildings, there are none of its architect, Wentworth.)

Lee Chapel, patients prayed and attended mass here. Later, a morgue was added in the basement; the chapel was later reused as a gym

The Administration Building and wards for quiet patients were at the front, with wards for the untidy, excited, and epileptic patients (again, original terms) around the perimeter. The infirmary and industrial buildings were located at the corners. The chapel, powerhouse, carpenter’s shop, laundry, kitchen, and dining facilities were placed in the center; the hospital was a self-sustaining community.

Medfield was the first state mental facility in Massachusetts to be built under the cottage plan layout. Back then, this was a very unique concept because instead of placing patients in cells, they were integrated into a small community and worked a specific job within it. (Major similar institutions followed the Kirkbridge Plan created by Dr. Thomas Kirkbridge in which patients and staff were all housed in a one large building.)

Interior living quarters - Medfield Historical Society source

Living conditions were home-like with sleeping quarters on the second floor; sitting and work rooms on the ground floor. Staff worked on the wards 12 hours a day, six days a week and lived in the wards as well. At one point, the asylum had over 2,000 patients and 500-600 staff.

The psychiatric hospital eventually housed a population that was larger than Medfield, a small agricultural community. By 1900, the town's population was over 3,000, half of which were hospital patients. The facility provided employment for over 600 Medfield residents and others from surrounding towns.

Vintage Exterior Views - Medfield Historical Society source

The Medfield farms were worked on by patients and served much of the food needs for all the state hospitals in eastern Massachusetts. Silos stored hundreds of tons of corn. Milk from the dairy herds supplied milk for residents at Medfield and many surrounding state institutions. There were over 3,000 hens; the cattle herd numbered over 1,000.

Former Men's Infirmary

A farmhouse added near the barn in 1901 served as living quarters for the head farmer and his family plus 14 farm hands and 30 patients. The farm played an important role in the lives of the patients and the economy of the hospital until farming was stopped in the late 1960s. 

In 1902, an additional $80,000 was appropriated for a second ward for excited female patients, and $2,000 towards the purchase of 40 acres for the construction of additional buildings for 600 patients. A nurses residence for 75 nurses, a male attendants’ home, a hospital for tubercular patients, a ward for 100 excited male patients, and a new powerhouse were also added.

Former employe cottages

Several wood-framed cottages were built in 1906 for employees. By year end, there were 1,500 patients.

The hospital was renamed Medfield State Asylum in 1909 to reflect changes in the treatment of the mentally ill. Five years later (1914) it was changed to the current Medfield State Hospital name which allowed it to care for patients with all types of mental illness, not just chronic mental illness. It was believed the word hospital conveyed a more hopeful outcome than the word asylum. 

At its height, the complex numbered 58 buildings on 425 acres, with a capacity for 2,200 patients. It raised its own livestock and produce, and generated its own heat, light and power. 

During the 1930s-1940s the hospital continued to be overcrowded with the population climbing to over 2,300 patients. In 1938, electro-shock treatment began to be used for the first time at the hospital.The outbreak of WW II and men enlisting, left a significant staff shortage. Higher-functioning patients performed laundry, housekeeping, food service, grounds care, farming, and other duties. A nurses training school was discontinued in 1943. By 1945, facilities at Medfield were failing and a state report noted many improvements were needed.

How It Ended

By the 1950s, new medications changed the care of the mentally ill, allowing the discharge of more patients. Replacing long-term psychiatric hospitals with community mental health services expanded in the 1960s after Congress passed a law requiring that mental health patients in the U.S. be housed or hospitalized in the least restrictive environment. By the mid-1970s, most of Medfield's patients were moved to community-based halfway houses. 

By 2001, Medfield had just 150 inpatients, with 29 out of 54 buildings still in use. With an annual maintenance budget of under $1 million, buildings were failing, earlier some were condemned. In 2002, faced with mounting expenses and an underused campus, the state of Massachusetts announced the closing of Medfield State Hospital and shuttered all buildings.

The Aftermath

The Medfield State Hospital campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the State Register for local and national historical significance in architecture, health and medicine and social history in 1993. 

Architectural rendering of Lee Chapel as Medfield Arts Center (online)

In 2014, the town of Medfield purchased Medfield State Hospital from the state for more than $3 million with a goal to repurpose it for community use, a plan still in the works. 

Another online report is the 2018 Medfield State Hospital (MSH) Strategic Reuse Master Plan which includes historic rehabilitation/reuse of 28 buildings for housing, commercial space, and recreation, including the conversion of Lee Chapel to an arts center. New construction would include housing and an inn with meeting and gathering spaces.

We didn't see any evidence of work in process during our visit. Instead, it felt like walking the back lot of a film studio. It's a perfect location for any production that requires an aging complex. 

In fact, it has been used as filming locations for at least two motion pictures, notably Shutter Island and The Box, neither of which we have seen. Reportedly, the 2019 film, Knives Out  too. But, we recently rewatched the film and didn't recognize any of the facility in it.

In summary, our walk around the grounds of this defunct hospital campus lead me to learn about and share its very unique and unsettling history. It's unlikely that we will ever revisit the site. How much longer free public access will remain is uncertain. If you ever plan to visit, here's the address: 

Medfield State Hospital, 45 Hospital Rd, Medfield, MA

grounds open 6 am to 6 pm, public access, buildings boarded up, entry prohibited

We Went for Muffins

We went for blueberry muffins last week (more on this later) and to see a unique village called The Enchanted Village which can only be visited at this very special time of year. It's inside a furniture warehouse in Avon, MA, and admission is free. 

As if that wasn't a special treat in itself, we were welcomed by a trio of singing penguins. This wasn't our first time visit as we first visited five years ago. As with most things, the village was shut down for several holiday seasons during the pandemic.

In 8,000 square feet of yuletide scenes, The Enchanted Village has 18 vignettes of all young children, 59 mechanical figurines total. It's only open to the public from late November until January 1 in Avon, MA. After that, it's set-up is closed to the public until the next holiday season.

Here's the backstory . . . This village was originally named the Enchanted Village of St. Nicolas, and was created in 1958 when Boston-based department store, Jordan Marsh, commissioned a Bavarian toy maker to create 28 fully decorated holiday scenes with 250 magically animated figures. 

The figures were depictions of life-size children in a quaint recreation of a Victorian-era village during the Christmas season in a simpler time, without the hustle of today. Assorted scenes show children wrapped in scarves and wearing warm clothing, as they are working in stores, trimming trees, delivering presents, selling newspapers, playing in a band.

At its peak, the display consumed an entire floor of Boston's first department store founded in the 1860s. Scenes were also spotlighted in the store's display windows. Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, the Enchanted Village was displayed in the flagship store. A trip to see the village became a New England tradition, until Jordan Marsh closed the display in 1972. 

In the early 1990s, the display was briefly returned, but Jordan Marsh closed in 1998 after being purchased by the Macy's chain of department stores. The new owners had no interest in the village and sold it  to the City of Boston which used it as a City Hall Plaza display until 2006. The city stopped displaying the village when the cost became too great and in 2009 put it up for auction. Unfortunately, not all of the figures had survived during the years.

That's when Jordan's Furniture (no relation) another Massachusetts-based retailer, came to its rescue. Its president and CEO Eliot Tatelman remembered traveling from his Newton, MA, home to see the village. Based on those childhood memories, he purchased the surviving pieces of the vintage mannequin display from the city of Boston at auction for $140,000, and had the remaining collection restored to its former glory. 

When Tatelman bought the Enchanted Village, it included only 21 original facades/rooms, and approximately 80 figures. Many parts had been lost including an 8-set Lionel train electric train that previously was a central part of the display.

Everything now on display is original with no added facades or figures. According to Tatelman, shown in the above display, his team updated the mechanicals and refurbished (not replaced) all the original facial features, original hair, and all the original clothes on the mannequins. 

About Those Muffins . . . The holiday village wasn't the only attraction at Boston's Jordan Marsh department store, it's where a blueberry muffin became a top-seller.

Muffins from a department store weren't that unusual years ago when, like many similar grand department stores of that era, Jordan Marsh had an on-site cafe/bakery. It served shoppers sweet treats and the ever-popular cake-like blueberry muffins were topped with crunchy sugar crystals.

Their popularity continued despite the store's closing. In 1998, the store's head baker, John Pupek, who had been baking at Marsh's since 1961, opened a Brockton, MA, bakery called (ready or not) the Jordan Marsh Muffin Co. It turned out thousands of blueberry muffins weekly, closing in 2004 when Pupek retired. He later sold the recipe to Montilio’s Baking Company in Boston which now provides pre-baked and packaged muffins to Jordan's Furniture at the Avon, MA location.

These treats are seasonal, just like the Enchanted Village. They're available for single purchase or in one of these six-packs, which we purchased — the cost was $13.

If you're not in the area, and a blueberry muffin aficionado, you can order an 8-pack with free shipping, but the price is way more $$$, even with 2 more included.