At a recent Forestville school board meeting, Superintendent Renee Garrett and other officials happily announced a new and dynamic partnership — one that is what school board members Sylvester Cleary would call “outside of the box” — with the owners of one of Forestville’s oldest and most stately abodes.

“They have invited us to bring students there for field trips, and to learn more about local history (and more) through their collections,” Garrett said.

‘STORIED’ HOME

The OBSERVER was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to the Adams Fry House for a tour and a peek at the extensive historical (and growing) collection there.

OBSERVER Photo by Rebecca Cuthbert The view from the third-floor landing looking down at the spiraling, oblong staircase is both beautiful and dizzying.

“This is my family home,” said Nancy. “I grew up here.”

She went on to say that the home was built in 1871 for Levi Pierce, an early mayor of Forestville and the person responsible for starting the Forestville Fire Department. He also started Prospect Hill Cemetery and owned businesses downtown in the village.

“He was a leading citizen in Forestville,” she noted.

However, Pierce wouldn’t live in his freshly built, three-story mansion for long.

“His wife never liked living here,” Nancy said. “It was too big. And if she was doing a lot of the housework herself, it would be overwhelming.”

OBSERVER Photo by Rebecca Cuthbert Nancy displays an album of original, signed Civil War generals’ photographs as Merv gives a winning smile to the camera.

The Pierces packed up and left after only two years, to another location in the village. Several owners then came and went, until 1955 when the Adams family bought it from the Robinsons. Though Nancy’s parents may have been new homeowners in Forestville, they weren’t new to the region. Many of the family’s roots are in Catt. County soil.

“My family came from Franklinville, in Cattaraugus County,” Nancy said. “They were actually some of the first settlers to come to Franklinville — originally from Massachusetts.”

Merv and Nancy explained that they did have to give the house some TLC when they took it over from Nancy’s parents, who, in the ’50s, had to do the same. However, any upgrades or renovations that have been done are very carefully fitted into the home’s existing ambience, with matching vintage-vibe pieces whenever possible.

“We did our best to have it all go together,” said Nancy, pointing out a 19th century table on which the new kitchen cabinets were based.

“The contractor matched them,” she said.

Other upgrades were made to the kitchen, dining area and bathrooms, but with an aesthetically seamless transition from new to old, one doesn’t feels jarred by stepping over that threshold.

RESEARCHERS’     PARADISE

Nancy and Merv do not scope out estate sales or haunt antique malls. The items in their collection have been passed down from generation to generation, with Nancy and Merv adding new pieces all the time.

“These are things my family brought with them,” she said, pointing out 1870s furniture in the music room. “Most of the things here came from Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, and a lot of it was brought from Massachusetts.”

An entire library on the first floor is full of books collected over the years that could shine a light on faded local history. A framed portrait of Lee Towne Adams, Nancy’s father who served as county court judge from 1972-1992, hangs on the wall. A faded diploma, awarded to Nancy’s grandmother, Josephine C. Towne, by Silver Creek Central School in 1910, rests on a bench. Other notable items include an entire book of signed portraits of Civil War generals, sheet music from several war eras meant to bolster the troops and a WWI semaphore flag, used to send signals from a ship.

“We’d be happy if students wanted to come do research projects,” Nancy said. “They could see how people lived, what the culture was like at the time of the Civil War, for example. A lot of these things we haven’t really gotten into — we’d love for the students to be able to really dive in.”

Local municipal history, war history, the culture during different eras, music or fashion through time and more are just a few of the topics students could research at the Adams Fry House — and unlike at a typical museum, students wouldn’t have to “stay behind the velvet ropes.”

“We want them to be able to handle these things, really read them or see them up close,” Nancy said, with Merv noting that care would have to be taken with the more fragile paper, like the sheet music and old newspapers.

Nancy also pointed out that a collection of diaries, saying they were the “early version of the selfie” or social media posts: a way to disclose feelings, air grievances and preserve memories.

“Most of these are from the 1930s up to the 1990s,” she noted, “but there are a few earlier, like this one from Julia Fitch in 1910.”

The diaries are located on the third floor, which, in the Pierces’ time, was an unfinished attic. Now it holds a rec room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, closets, and a little sunroom with a ladder up to the house’s most prominent exterior feature: a square cupola that sits on top of the third floor like a smart little hat.

LIVING HISTORY

Aside from its age and beauty, the most impressive aspect of the Adams Fry House is its “livability.” Though the home holds more artifacts than many museums, nothing is off-limits in the traditional museum sense. This house is very much lived in: Nancy and Merv sit in the 150-year-old chairs. Servants’ quarters on the third floor have been converted into a combination den/library, where Nancy’s and Merv’s personal book collections are kept next to comfy armchairs. One of the second-floor bedrooms is theirs, and at certain points in the year, the entire house is packed more full than a squirrel’s winter hidey hole, since 11 grandchildren, plus their parents, come to stay.

“We fill the place!” said Merv, with Nancy adding, “It’s a lot of fun.”

The kids can play with old dolls, toys, board games, and more, with no areas marked “Restricted Access.”

Even more impressive, the mansion is home to a friendly Labrador Retriever (Judge) and a curious little cat (Little Orphant Annie), who (almost) never break anything. You won’t find pets in other museums! Merv’s mother, Dr. Anne Fry, lives there as well, and her wonderful team of caregivers also helps to fill the home and add to its warmth.

An important lesson that students will learn at the Adams Fry House is that history is not a dead, dusty thing. It is a living entity, created and added to every day. Nancy and Merv are conscious of this, and take care to add their own generation’s artifacts to the collection. Their hat collection, which counts in at about 300, contains Merv’s doctoral ceremony hat and straw hats from a more recent wedding. A collection of wedding gowns includes dresses worn by grandmothers and great-grandmothers, but also Nancy’s own wedding gown, and the dress her mother Muriel Adams wore to Lyndon B. Johnson’s inauguration.

“She made it herself,” said Nancy, “from silk brocade she got from Paris.”

There is also a little mink stole in the collection.

“I think that was an aunt’s,” mused Nancy. “We used to use it for Halloween!” (Later, Merv mentioned that Judge and Annie showed a bit too much interest in the furry dead thing.)

COMMUNITY ASSET

Both Nancy and Merv want the community of Forestville to feel welcome in their home, and have held open houses before.

“We’ve given house tours to help raise money for the American Legion and for the fire department,” said Nancy. “It was a lot of fun.”

Recently, school officials were invited to have tea in the first floor library and given a tour of the home.

“That way they could get ideas on what sorts of projects or field trips they could do,” Nancy said.

With school budgets always presenting a challenge, and things like field trips and the arts often being sacrificed, this “outside the box” educational partnership has come about at an ideal time — and magic is already happening.

“There’s a wonderful, creative music teacher at the school, and some of her students have already taken video here and put it to music,” Nancy said. “Just think what they could do if they had more time at the house!”

Nancy said students could explore the house as a “portal to history,” and could use it as a “history lab.”

Currently, Garrett said, teachers are looking forward to the prospect of bringing students to visit, and are thinking of ways to make sure they get the most out of their trips.

“We’re all really excited,” Garrett said. “The collection (at the Adams Fry House) is just amazing.”

As for Judge, the Labrador, well, he’s excited, too.

Comments on this article may be sent to rcuthbert@observertoday.com.