DEERFIELD, MA. (WGGB/WSHM) -- Historic Deerfield offers visitors a glimpse into early New England life through an entire street of preserved 18th century buildings and houses. If you find yourself strolling down the sidewalk, you’re not just walking through a neighborhood filled with old historic houses, you’re actually walking through history.

Deerfield was first settled in 1673 and incorporated four years later as a frontier town. The remote English settlement was located in an area used by the Pocumtuck people for hunting and farming. “This was really the edge of frontier settlement, very contested land for a long time because it was so desirable agriculturally and also geopolitically, it was the edge of an empire pushing in an era of repeated imperial warfare,” said Erika Gasser, Director of Academic Programs at Historic Deerfield.

The warfare began in 1675 with King Phillip’s War, some 100 years before the founding of the country. This was followed in 1704 with a raid on Deerfield during Queen Anne’s War, also called the Deerfield Massacre. “These are big imperial wars between England and France and native allies on all sides,” Gasser explained.

By the mid-1700s, Deerfield emerged from those devastating conflicts, shaking off its frontier status to become a more prosperous farming community. Even during the Revolution, the town of Deerfield was divided like many others. “For Deerfield, it seems that it was about half and half: Loyalist versus Patriot. There were separate taverns for people who were motivated to support one side or the other and people got very mad at the minister because he was an ardent Loyalist and after the Tea Party, he held a tea party of his own, in his house in order to show he was still a loyal member of the British Empire,” Gasser noted.

By 1776, the colonies became a country and, by 1797, Deerfield became home to Deerfield Academy. In 1936, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Flynt of Greenwich, CT enrolled their son at the school and fell in love with the town. They moved to Deerfield and began to amass a vast collection of colonial items while purchasing and restoring old houses to store their antiques.

Historic Deerfield was incorporated in 1952. Today, because of the Flynts, there are 12 historic houses and the Flynt Center of Early New England Life, displaying more than 25,000 objects made or used in America between 1650 and 1850. “Many of these objects were in closets and cupboards in our historic houses, so they really got to have their due when they were brought over to this building. They saw the light of day which they really needed to do,” said Amanda Lange, Curatorial Department Director at Historic Deerfield.

Visitors can see furniture, art, tools, and even a colonial chamber pot inside the visible storage areas. Not everything is on display, including some unusual items. “We have Governor Jonathan Belcher’s…a curl of his hair, which also has an old written note on it saying that this was Governor Belcher’s hair,” Lange added. Belcher is the same governor for whom Belchertown is named.

The combination of an authentic setting, historic houses, artifacts, and stories about the past makes Historic Deerfield a local and national treasure.

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