Part 3, The Victorian Era At The Potsdam Museum

I was touring the Potsdam Museum on a rainy day and very much enjoying their display of local items from the Victorian Era. This display case held fans, felt flowers under glass, top hats, shoes, toys and other wondrous reminders of life among Potsdam's upper class in the Victorian Era:

High fashion for a night out on the town:

This plaque explained the origin of the magnificent building now housing the museum. Interestingly, the Potsdam and Canton area seems to have been a hotbed of Universalism at that time and St. Lawrence University was founded as a Universalist school:

There was a child's table adorned with toys:

There was a considerable display of Mercury Glass, which a sign explained was blown double walled and then silvered between the layers with a liquid silvering solution. Then it was sealed. The result was surely beautiful:

Silverware of various types:

I decided that I hadn't taken enough full room photos, so here's a look at the museum from where I stood near the silverware:

And a view of the Victorian Era family setting and formal costumes. You can see by the stained glass that this was once a church:

A silver plated coffee urn from 1880:

And one parting shot of the main floor of the museum. There was a modern research room off to the left and many records up on the balcony:

From the outside, you can see the impressive building which houses the museum. There were three sections - the museum, the Potsdam municipal offices and the library. I wondered if they had all once been part of the Universalist Church property or if some had been added on by the town. There was also a fire station to the left of this photo in a similar but more recent style:

But before I drove away, I turned around and snapped a photo of one of the old Clarkson University buildings. Clarkson now has a large a modern campus several miles down the road and I couldn't tell if these buildings were still used or not. Either way, it was a lovely sight:

Canton, New York, The County Seat - Part 3

I'd hiked with the dogs on Monday morning and then began a driving tour of the area around the farm, beginning with Potsdam, New York. I was now in Canton, New York and enjoying its bustling downtown and quiet, old residential streets with large trees:

Many of the houses appeared to be rather old. This one, I suspected, may have been a farm house many years ago before all the neighbors moved in:

The kind of front porch which is ideal for sitting in a rocking chair and greeting your neighbors as they pass by:

Canton seemed to me to have an unusual number of very tall trees. It made the town seem warm and friendly to me, but then I am a tree lover:

Some of the homes looked rather expensive to me:

And some seemed more modest and comfortably affordable:

This house was for sale and I looked it up on the Internet when I got home. It was a three bedroom, two bath home listed at $87,500:

More fine old homes:

St. Lawrence University is also located in Canton and was quite beautiful. It was founded in 1856 by the New England Universalist Church but today is a nondenominational liberal arts institution with an excellent reputation:

I passed quickly through the campus and took only these two photos. Perhaps I'll stop in again some day for a closer look, but I'd had a long day and decided to begin making my way home to the farm: