This weekend you can slow the pace of your busy world and turn back to a quieter time: a time when there were no cellphones, email or 24-hour stores.
The Fenton History Center's eighth annual living history day, Old Fashion Day, will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Fenton Mansion and park, located just south of the Washington Street Bridge at 67 Washington St., Jamestown. The festival is free to the public.
The summer exhibit theme this year is Jamestown's theaters and the vaudeville era. Demonstrators will show their old-time crafts such as leather working, woodworking, spinning and weaving. Other old-time vendors will be showing off their wooden tools, marbles, antique mechanicals and axes. Modern craft vendors will be selling and demonstrating jewelry making, wood burning, and crocheting.
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A line of craft vendors’ tents are shown during a previous Old Fashion Day.
A trio of older vehicles will be at the festival: a 1900 Sears and Roebuck car, a 1925 Chevrolet and a 1911 electric delivery truck. There will be horse-drawn carriage rides for a nominal fee and a children's tent where they can practice juggling, learn some tap dancing and make a historic marker.
"Picks and Hammers," from Edinboro, Pa., will be playing American traditional music from the 1800s and early 1900s using dulcimers, fiddle, mandolin and guitar.
"History comes alive when we can touch it, when we have a chance to spin, weave or tinker with an old motor. When we can enter a time period and, hopefully, understand it better, then we begin to make it part of our life," said Joni Blackman, Fenton History Center director. "This is one of the ways we can interest our children and grandchildren in their past."
Bill Lucas, a local antiques dealer, will be on hand to advise and appraise. The cost is $3 per appraisal or four items for $10. Food vendors will sell cotton candy, homemade chocolates, root beer floats and kettle corn. Italian sausage, hamburgers, curly fries and hot dogs will also be available.
The 1863 mansion of former Congressman, Governor and Senator Reuben E. Fenton will be open for free during the event. The Fenton Mansion houses Jamestown's local history museum. It has period rooms from the mid-late 1800s, a pioneer kitchen, a farmer's workshop and many local history exhibits. The home is on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum gift shop will also be open.
"I want to especially thank our sponsors, Jamestown Radiologists, P.C., and Lydell industries, LLC, for their support of our local history. They make this event possible," Blackman said. "Jamestown is full of inspiring stories, interesting people and fun places. Take some time out of your busy schedule and enjoy your town's past this Saturday at Fenton Old Fashion Day."
For more information visit www.fentonhistorycenter.org or call 664-6256.