Haines House adds programs for festival tours
The Haines House Underground Railroad Museum, operated by the Alliance Area Preservation Society, is launching new exhibits and programs beginning with Carnation Festival.
Among the new programming are a restructured and researched tour of the almost 200-year-old brick home; a new banner exhibition highlighting the Lost Heritage of Alliance; mini hands-on programs of Conversation Starters; and a display marking the work of local abolitionists.
The Haines Formal Parlor also includes a restored settee. Work also has begun on the first phase of restoration of Haines House’s iconic front double portico and stairway.
The story of trailblazers, freedom seekers and abolitionists is the theme of new docent-led tours of the Haines House Underground Railroad Museum. This reimagining involved about four months of re-evaluation and research of the history of the Grant and Haines families, the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad.
This was followed by training for the museum’s roster of more than 30 docent tour guides. As visitors are led through the house, according to Alliance Area Preservation Society President Robb Hyde, “they will view its artifacts while learning stories of the opening of a heavily forested frontier where the seminal struggle for American social justice took shape among the pioneers of the Ohio heartland.”
The Lost Heritage of Alliance banner exhibit focuses on remembering the homes, businesses and public places that are no longer there but remain in the hearts of many. Four new banners will be on display in the house, including schools, movie theaters, a variety of homes and businesses. A fifth banner remembers the Ramsey House on Union Avenue. “The Ramsey House’s loss sparked the formation of the Preservation Society in the 1990s,” Hyde said.
The banners, which later will be displayed at locations around Alliance, have been prepared by architectural historian and AAPS board member Dalton Rininger Kline.
The new conversation starters mini hands-on program will be featured each day of the Greater Alliance Carnation Festival open houses. The program will provide adults and children a chance to connect for 10 or 15 minutes to hear a performance, listen to a story, pet a sheep or do a hands-on project and ask questions of one of the Museum’s docents.
⋅ On Aug. 7, “Making Breakfast – and Clothes – at Home” will feature area businesswoman and sometime sheep herder Deb Hatherill, who will share a live Shetland sheep, chickens and a loom to help visitors better envision life’s basic needs on the frontier.
⋅ The Aug. 8 program “Melodies & Airs of Ohio’s Early Days,” performed by Ann Hendel and Michal Barrett on flute, guitar and banjo, will include mid-19th century music in the Buckeye State.
⋅ On Aug. 9, “Propagating a Scarlet Carnation with Yarn,” with artist Chrystal Shoforth, will be a creative outlet for visitors to be like Levi Lamborn to grow their own make-and-take it carnation with yarn.
⋅ On Aug. 10, in "Why Do We Call Them Trailblazers, Freedom Seekers, and Abolitionists?” Robb Hyde will have visitors create a yarn-and-button whirligig while telling some of the stories of the Haines House’s three historic touchpoints.
⋅ On Aug. 11, Marissa Hyde will present “Cultivating and Preserving from the Land,” featuring freshly picked items from her own garden that would have been grown on the Haines farm. She also will discuss processes to grow and preserve them that would have been used in the 19th century.
⋅ On Aug. 12, Chuck McClaugherty will present “Music of the Abolitionists.” Almost every abolitionist meeting began with a selection of abolitionist songs. McClaugherty will play some of these on his hammer dulcimer, and also will invite visitors to try their hand at playing some old melodies on the instrument.
If you go
What – Haines House Underground Railroad Museum programming.
Where – Haines House, 186 W. Market St. in Alliance.
When – 1 to 4 p.m. Aug. 7-12.
Cost – $5 per person is requested. Children younger than 12 enter free.
More information – The House will also have open houses the first full weekend of the month September through November. Tours are also available by appointment. For more information visit the Haines House website at www.haineshouse.org.
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Haines House in Alliance adds programs for Carnation Festival tours
