[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 27 (Thursday, February 13, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2450-S2451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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           HISTORIC DEERFIELD CELEBRATES ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY

 Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, 2002 marked the 50th anniversary 
of the incorporation of Historic Deerfield. Founded in 1952 by Mr. and 
Mrs. Henry Needham Flynt of Greenwich, Crt, the western Massachusetts 
museum complex is located within the 330-year-old village of Deerfield, 
called ``the gem of rural New England'' by the National Trust for 
Historic Preservation. Cited often as the best documented small 
community in America, Deerfield attracts scholars, curators, and 
students to study the history of New England using the village's rich 
manuscript an research holdings. And, tourists and travelers from 
throughout the world encounter the story of early America in the 
parlors and kitchens of Deer Field's old houses and along its mile-long 
thoroughfare simply called, ``The Street.''
  Surrounded by more than 1,000 acres of actively farmed meadows, 
Historic Deer Field's museum houses and decorative art galleries are 
filed with more than 30,000 objects made or used in America between 
1650 and 1850. This carefully preserved community of 18th and 19th 
century houses and the renowned collections of antiques within them are 
framed by working farms in a quintessential New England village that 
travelers are delighted to discover.
  In 1936 Henry and Helen Flynt enrolled their son at Deerfield 
Academy, a college preparatory school founded in 1797. The couple was 
amazed at the remarkable but fragile state of preservation of the 
village's houses and buildings dating back to the early 18th century. 
Many were ghosts of their former selves, but still lived in by 
descendants of the proud families that had survived the infamous 
Deerfield Massacre of 1704. In those years preceding World

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War II, Henry Flynt's great passion for America was stirred as he 
realized that this little village, founded by English settlers in 1669 
and whose meadows were inhabited by native peoples for thousands of 
years before, had witnessed the great events of this country's history.
  Encouraged by Deerfield Academy's legendary Headmaster Frank Learoyd 
Boyden, the Flynts began to purchase several of the old houses and 
restore their ells and early additions as dormitory space for the 
school's growing student body. Their interest in every American history 
and the decorative arts blossomed simultaneously and soon the Flynts 
were restoring the old houses not as dormitories but as museums filled 
with their growing collection of the finest antiques then available.
  In 1945 the Flynts purchased the 1994 Deerfield Inn and restored it 
for use by parents visiting Deerfield Academy students. In that same 
year they bought an old house for themselves and furnished it as their 
Deerfield residence. By 1948 Historic Deerfield's first museum house--
the Parson Jonathan Ashley House--was opened to the public and in the 
ensuing 25 years 13 more houses were furnished as museums welcoming 
growing numbers of visitors. Shortly before Henry Flynt's death in 
1970, a new research library was opened that also administers the 
extensive collection of early Deerfield manuscripts owned by the 
village historical society, The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association. 
Founded in 1880, this repository of local history and art still opens 
its doors to visitors each year from May to October.
  In 1998 a long held dream was realized when a new, 27,000-square-foot 
decorative arts museum--the Flynt Center of Early New England Life--was 
opened. With galleries for changing exhibitions, a unique storage 
display of more than 3000 objects appropriately called the Museum's 
Attic, and expanded lecture and public program space, the Flynt Center 
was the culmination of a $12 million capital campaign that attracted 
gifts from more than 800 individuals, foundations, and corporations 
throughout America and abroad.
  I congratulate Historic Deerfield on the occasion of its 50th 
anniversary, and I send my best wishes for 50 more great years.

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