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Annual
Candlelight at The Inn - Garfield Farm Museum Sunday,
December 8
CAMPTON HILLS — Garfield Farm & Inn Museum’s annual Candlelight at the Inn will be held on Sunday, December 8 from 3-7 pm. The open house features this 1840s living history farm and the 47 years of efforts to preserve and present northern Illinois’ settlement and farming history amidst the once great Illinois prairie.
Located at 2N930 Garfield Road in Campton Hills, IL off ILL Rt. 38, music and light refreshments in the restored 1846 brick inn and a bake sale in the 1840s Atwell Burr House will be offered.
It is a favorite event of the museum’s members and is a great opportunity for people to learn of the project’s 47-year record and ongoing efforts of restoration and preservation. Donations are most needed as the museum is in the midst of a $4 million campaign to complete the restoration and preservation of the site. For information call 630 584-8485 or email info@garfieldfarm.org.
The annual tradition of Candlelight creates an atmosphere of another time when life was simpler but full of hard realities few present-day Americans can imagine. Modern life’s every day abundance is taken for granted as the least inconvenience becomes over blown complaints previous generations had little luxury of knowing. Amongst the soft glow of the candles lulling one into an almost serene state, belies the challenges our ancestors faced from lack of medicine and medical care to back breaking work that did not guarantee even a prospect of success, just a hope of surviving the then overwhelming vagaries of life.
How quickly we of present day would complain of the first bite of cold setting out on a day long unheated stagecoach ride from Chicago to the Fox Valley on rough frozen roads where the next bump might over turn the coach, stranding passengers on the vast prairie. Would we relish a night on just a bedroll or a tick full of straw after such a ride at an inn whose upper chambers might only break the outside cold winds? Would there be any sleep, sharing quarters with fellow travelers snoring loudly as many had overindulged in the taproom essentially drinking themselves to sleep? All this of course would rank Garfield with the better inns where other places of custom were not much more that a roof overhead, with bedbugs for companions, meager menus served at limited times consisting of little more than salt pork, potatoes and cornbread.
Yet amongst all this, joy was to be found as inns like Garfield provided the refuge and Harriet Frost Garfield was known to set a good table. The comradery in the taproom sharing local news and tall tales may have been more boisterous than the subdued conversations of women travelers in the ladies’ parlor as serious conversations revolved around temperance and abolition as women sought greater rights. What provided floor space on the second floor for sleeping could be pre-empted by any traveler with a fiddle as a spontaneous dance of contras or quadrilles could assuage the most dispirited soul on a long dark winter’s night. Could present generations stand such boredom with only conversation or infectious fiddle tunes as the modern diet is all but force-fed unlimited entertainment via video, computers, smart phones, theaters, sports and music venues.
So, the longing for values, for substance can be rediscovered at Garfield’s respite in pausing for several hours to witness at Candlelight the hint of life before the most modern blessings and excesses of life. Hearing the music from the ballroom echoing throughout the house, tasting of warm spiced tea offered in the dining room, seeing the beautiful period dresses worn by the interpreters, and above all basking in the candle glow of life apart from our most modern glare, summons all to ponder what has been gained and what needs to be rediscovered as life on the prairies, life in America, evolves.
The Candlelight tour offers visitors a chance to meet the volunteers and donors, who are the lifeblood of the farm. Visitors can become members of the museum or support its various restoration projects. The event is a time for those interested in becoming involved to meet those who already give so much to help sustain the museum and keep it moving forward. The event also benefits the museum’s ongoing efforts to restore the historic buildings and to provide educational programming.
The museum is in its 7th year of a $4 million campaign (The 2027 Bucket List) to complete all its major projects of restoration and development by its 50th anniversary in November of 2027. Over half of the projects have been completed with several others begun. The efforts include restoring natural areas, preserving or restoring 18 historic structures of 27 buildings on the museum's two farmsteads, adding livestock and museum support facilities. A Garfield Farm Forever Endowment has been established with a $10 million goal. Garfield Heritage Society and Campton Historic Agricultural Lands are the two non-profit organizations responsible for the site's preservation, restoration and interpretation.
The 375 acre Garfield Farm Museum is the only historically intact former 1840s Illinois prairie farmstead and teamster inn being restored by donors and volunteers from 3700 households in 37 states as an 1840s working farm museum. Garfield Farm Museum is located 5 miles west of Geneva, IL off ILL Rt.38 on Garfield Road. For information call (630) 584-8485 or email info@garfieldfarm.org. |