There will be a free event at the Thomas Paine cottage today from 2-4. We have attended these events in the past and really enjoyed them. If you have a chance, stop by. Barbara Davis will be speaking and her knowledge of New Rochelle history is really amazing.
Press release here:
New Rochelle, NY – Celebrate the Thomas Paine Cottage at the 100th Anniversary Of Operation as an Historic House Museum on Sunday, July 11, 2010 from 2 to 4 PM.
The public is welcome to this program. City and state representatives and historical speakers will give a perspective on Thomas Paine – and the Thomas Paine Cottage. There will be light refreshments.
Our first speaker will be R.B. Bernstein, a distinguished adjunct professor of law at New York Law School. He is the author of The Founding Fathers Reconsidered (Oxford Books, 2009) and of Thomas Jefferson (2003). He is a board member of H-LAW and a Director of Online Operations of Heights Books, Inc. of Brooklyn, NY.
Barbara Davis will be our second speaker. Ms. Davis is city historian of New Rochelle, and Community Relations Coordinator for the New Rochelle Public Library. She has served on the Board of Trustees of the Westchester County Historical Society and is the author of the recently published book New Rochelle, in Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series. She will speak about the history of the Cottage.
The Cottage is the last dwelling in North America that Thomas Paine called his home. It is open as an historic house museum for the world to visit. The Cottage contains some of the few personal artifacts once owned by Thomas Paine, including a simple chair and a cast iron Franklin stove given to Paine by Ben Franklin himself. The Cottage is located on the last two acres of Paine’s 300 acre farm, awarded to Paine for his services in the struggle for independence by a grateful New York State. The site also includes the Sophia Brewster One-room Schoolhouse, the oldest free-standing private school in New Rochelle.
The Cottage recently received a $95,000 restoration which gives the building a new, historically correct cedar shingle roof and clapboard exterior. All walls were insulated. A new heating system was installed, replacing a deteriorating, inefficient 1950’s furnace. New interior lighting was added for exhibits, upgrading those areas for the development of new, permanent collections.
The present collection includes the Huguenot settlement of New Rochelle; information on Thomas Paine’s life, life in Westchester and the United States during the Revolutionary War, during the 18th Century; New Rochelle during the Civil War, and the Big Band Era at Glen Island. Other historical facts, including information about our area’s original inhabitants, the Siwanoy Indians, are featured.
There is no admission charge for the lawn party and celebration.
Thomas Paine Cottage is located at 20 Sicard Avenue, and North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY, 10804, across the street from New Rochelle High School.
For more information, visit www.ThomasPaineCottage.org
The Legacy of Thomas Paine is Greatly Underestimated
This well planned ceremony gave the l00 or so who attended many insights into the work of Paine. His thoughts were a powerful influence in the founding of our democratic nation and should not be forgotten.