On Sunday, July 11, the beginnings of the American Revolution came to Historic London Town and Gardens.  Over 200 visitors enjoyed live cannon fire by Ships Company, participated in militia drills, learned about hearth cooking, played colonial games, and toured the William Brown House while interacting with 1st-person interpreters.  Additionally, Annapolis Ice Cream Company gave out free scoops of ice cream to our visitors.  The demand was so much that all of it was gone by 2:30pm.

     This event was successful due to the large numbers of volunteers who helped interpret London Town's history and stories to the public.  The London Town Foundation thanks them for their invaluable service.

     Our next large living history event will be Sunday, November 7, when we explore the market and trades aspect of the colonial Chesapeake.

Ahhh, May is here and that means its time to check on the bees.  On Saturday, May 1, Kai Richardson came to London Town to see how his hives (in our Woodland Garden) were doing.  It was quite an experience for me to see the hives disassembled and then put back together.  Below are some pictures of Kai working as well as his own guest blog entry:

 

"It indeed was a fantastic day for checking on the bees.  The sun was shining and bees were especially active.  These two hives have thrived in Londontowne, particularly the one on the left.  Since I brought it to Londontowne 3 years ago from my former Charles County home, it has developed into the largest and most vibrant hive I have ever cared for.  Last year, over 100 pounds of delicious tulip poplar honey was harvested from this single hive, and from the way things look this spring, I am hopeful that we will have another bumper crop.

For obvious reasons, Spring is a critical time for both the bees and for beekeepers.  This is especially true in Maryland which has such a short "nectar flow" season.  This is the short three months starting April 1st and ending in late June during which there are plentiful nectar producing plants such as tulip poplar trees, locust trees, and basswood trees.  A beekeeper has to be ready to take advantage of this time when there is an excess of nectar and the bees are in full force to collect it and store it as honey.  As you can see from these pictures, I have loaded each hive with 5 extra boxes, or "supers", filled with just empty plastic honeycomb.  The bees are genetically predisposed to fill any extra space in the hive with nectar, even if they don't need that much to make it through the winter.  By July 4th here in Maryland, the nectar flow will end, and the extra boxes will be removed - hopefully full of Londontowne honey.  Not to worry though:  enough honey is always left for the bees, and there is a short nectar flow from fall flowers so they should have no problems surviving even the harshest Maryland winter!"

 

 

This past Saturday, April 17 (which was a great day for cooking), London Town's junior docents came out in force to cook and clean at the Lord Mayor's Tenement.  We had a lot of fun, the food was good, and the visitors that came had a great time.  Though I could write a bit more about the day, I'm going to let our guest blogger for this post, Perry (a Junior Docent), give her thoughts. (BTW - The next gathering is Saturday, May 15.  So come out and see what our Junior Docents can teach you about London Town!)

My name is Perry Gregory and I am a 11 year old  junior docent at London Town. On the day that these pictures were taken, (April 17) , we had a great time, giving tours ant the tenement, cooking apple coffin ( the colonial residents word for pie that had a top on it) and [leek] stew, and playing games . In the picture [below], My friend Emma and I are playing 12 mans bluff, which is a game sort of like a cross between tic tack toe, and checkers. The object of the game is to make three in a row of your own stones while simultaneously trying to block your opponent from doing so. We also aired out the beds, and swept the floor of the kitchen and the attic. It was very dusty. History has always been my favorite subject, and so coming to London Town is always a pleasure . Please come to our next event. It will be really fun and I would love to give you a tour! Thanks,  ~Perry Gregory

On Sunday, March 21 from 12:00 - 4:00 Historic London Town and Gardens celebrated Maryland's 276th birthday by opening its doors for the season with free admission.

Visitors had a chance to listen to Caldwell's 2nd Fife and Drum Corps (image below), tour the c1760 William Brown House (a National Historic Landmark), learn about children's games in the Lord Mayor's Tenement, and see what plants the weather has encouraged to bloom in our gardens.

This was just the first out of three planned living history days for the year.  The next, Revolutionary London Town, will be held on Sunday, July 11 from 12:00 - 4:00.  And in the fall, on Sunday, November 7 we will have our Market and Trades events.

We hope to see you throughout the year at these and the many other activities we're hosting.

Congratulations!

Welcome, same sex marriage unions.

Have your celebration reception  at beautiful Historic London Town and Gardens.  Many prime summer dates available including May 1 and May 8, 2010.

Check out our website www.historiclondontown.org

Phone Patsy 410 - 222- 1919 or email events@historiclondontown.org

The storm over the last weekend dropped nearly 20 inches of snow at London Town.  While the white blanket is beautiful, it has made navigating the site slippery and dangerous.  Due to the icy conditions Historic London Town and Gardens will be closed until December 29th.  Thank you for your interest and Happy Holidays!

London Town is a little more festive this year thanks to Mrs. Wentz and her fourth grade class at Bayside Elementary in Stevensville, MD who reconstructed London Town using gingerbread.  With the assistance of  David Perry the class made the gingerbread, baked it in the school ovens, measured and cut all pieces to scale, and with the assistance of parents constructed the William Brown House, the Carpenter Shop, the Rumney-West Ordinary, and the Lord Mayor's Tenement.

This project came about after the fourth grade's annual field trip to Historic London Town and Gardens.  Each year they select a site to reconstruct in gingerbread, this year it was London Town!  The students donated their work to us, and is on display in the Pavilion.  London Town volunteers marveled at the kids work at our Annual Holiday Party.  In fact, Frank Marzucco, director of Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parks was so impressed with their work that he decided to feature the gingerbread town on the county's website www.aacounty.org/recparks . 

A special thank you to all the students, Mrs. Wentz, and Mr. Perry for all of their hard work and creativity! 

Students working on the Lord Mayors Tenement

Students working on the Rumeny-West Ordinary

Students working on the Carpenter Shop

Students working on the William Brown House

The finished town on display

 

The William Brown House is decorated for the Holidays with the preparations for a holiday party. Entertainment will include dancing in the tavern room, cards and games in the River Room, supper and desserts, and plenty of drinks. One guest will not be joining in the fun, however. Poor Mr. Black is laid low with an ague (perhaps the flu) and has taken to his bed. The doctor will soon come and bleed him if the other medicines he had left have had no effect.

Visitors to our Native American Cooking demonstration today (Friday, November 27, 2009) avoided the shopping malls while learning about the various foodways the English colonists adopted from the local Woodland Indians during the colonial period.  Young and old alike helped grind corn, cook (sweet) potatoes, roast chestnuts, and chop wood.

Three of our education docents, Elly, Carole, and Barbara, as well as two of our junior docents, Perry and Lexie, worked hard and gave our visitors many excellent hands-on opportunities.  Below are some pictures of our docents in action and the food prepared on-site.

Above: Visitors learning about Native American foodways.

Below: Corn, dried apples and pumpkins, and other good food.

 

On Saturday and Sunday, October 31 and November 1, we had our annual Market and Trades Weekend.  Though the weather didn't really cooperate, all who were involved (volunteers, staff, re-enactors, and visitors) thoroughly enjoyed the living history, cannon fire, bread baking, hearth cooking, and workshops offered throughout the weekend.  Our next large living history day is our Revolutionary London Town event on Sunday, July 11, 2010 from 12:00 - 4:00.

Below are some images from the weekend.

Above: Oldton's Company of Baltemore Rangers in our Lord Mayor's Tenement

Above: Caldwell's 2^nd Fife and Drum Corps

 

Above: Ship's Company and their cannon

 

And of course, the mud.