Keeler Tavern Museum’s Family Day Is June 13, 2015: Celebrity Visits the Cannonball House

On Saturday, June 13, 2015, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Keeler Tavern Museum, 132 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT, will offer a full, free day of history fun for people of all ages. The Museum’s grounds and buildings will be alive with exhibits, demonstrations, and hands-on experiences from Colonial Days up to the Gilded Age.

Children and their families will be able to meet some of the Museum’s past residents and visiting celebrities in period costumes who will be strolling the grounds. Visitors can tour the Museum and enjoy the Farming Tool exhibit in the Carriage Barn. There will be children’s crafts and outdoor games; live music on Center Stage with local bands and vocal groups; a wandering minstrel; a petting zoo with pony rides; a cake contest by amateur bakers and a silent auction of cakes made by professional bakers; classic cars; and much more. Re-enactors from the Fifth Connecticut Regimentwill do musket drills and firing, teach 18^th-century games, and describe the life of a Revolutionary War soldier.

Local Family Day collaborators thus far confirmed include the Fred Astaire Studio with dance demonstrations in the barn; The Enchanted Garden with face painting; Prospector Theater with freshly popped popcorn; Ridgefield Chorale; and the Ridgefield Library with a trivia contest.

Admission to the event is free, except for the pony rides. Food and refreshments will also be available for purchase from the on-site barbecue station.

“During 2015, the Museum is focusing on the celebrities who owned or visited this site on Ridgefield’s Main Street,” observes Executive Director Hildi Grob. “Our event’s mascot—Columbus the Elephant—was a celebrity of his time.” According to a poster in the Museum’s collection, dated the year 1818, people paid 25 cents each (more like $10 today) to see Columbus when he appeared at what was then Keeler Tavern. “We hope that, while there is no admission to Family Day, attendees will give generously at the donation stations we’ll have on site,” Ms. Grob continues, “while we can’t bring an elephant here, we’re offering everyone a chance to get up close and personal to history from Colonial Days to the Gilded Age.”

The Keeler Tavern Museum, 132 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, presents three centuries of the region’s history through the lives of the families that occupied the site starting in 1713. It offers docent-led tours of its period-furnished Museum building February through December, and its Cass Gilbert-designed Carriage Barn, Garden House, and garden are venues for many public and private events. More information may be found at www.keelertavernmuseum.org or on the museum’s Facebook page at Facebook/Keeler Tavern Museum.

Photo caption: Members of the Fifth Connecticut Regiment will be on site at Keeler Tavern Museum for its Family Day on Saturday, June 13; details at keelertavernmuseum/org .