Fields-Penn 1860 House Museum
208 West Main St
Abingdon, VA
276-676-0216 or 276-628-5005
Open for guided tours April - December
Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday 10 am - 4 pm
Admission:
$3 for adults, $2 ages 6-12, 5 and under free.
Museum members get in free!
History comes to life through guided tours that interpret 19th-century life in Southwest Virginia. The home's original owners enjoyed status in the emerging middle class: the Fields in the years on the eve of the Civil War, and the Penns in the gilded 1890s.
As a brick mason and building contractor, James Fields built his home in 1860, for wife, Susan, and their eight children, in the latest American style. The family of George and Estelle Penn moved into the house in the 1890s and made it their home for 75 years.
The home's historic and formal architecture is reflected in balanced Georgian proportions, an Italianate roofline with bracketed cornice and Greek Revival details at the doors and windows.
Walk through this brick home and experience the architecture, furnishings and decorative arts from the Civil War era.
Downstairs, the family entertained guests in the Best Parlor, furnished with the finest possessions. A Sitting Room across the hall is more informal, filled with varied and practical furniture for the family's everyday activities. The Dining Room, decorated in the then-fashionable colors of "scarlet and bottle green," is joined by a Kitchen, Dogtrot and Pantry, now home to a display of regional pottery. The Herb and Kitchen Garden features period plants used to prepare food and decorate the home.
Upstairs, visit the Victorian Bedchamber, where you will see furniture original to the home on long-term loan from descendants of the Penn family. Learn how flax and wool were transformed into clothing, bedcovers and rugs in the Loom Room, and view regional textiles in the nearby Sewing Closet. A Children's Bedchamber complete with period toys illustrates the presence of the many children who once lived in this home.
Throughout the house, decorative and folk art from the permanent collection of William King Museum's Cultural Heritage Project are on display. The Cultural Heritage Project documents and presents the artistic legacy of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
Fields-Penn House is owned by the town of Abingdon and managed by William King Museum.
© 2010 William King Museum