"Don't clap too hard - it's a very old building." ~ John Osborne

This past Sunday, Bruce and I set aside my studio while awaiting our flooring (which we can pick up today!) and decided to take a "Sunday Drive". We headed in the direction of Hamilton, NY, where my mother was raised. I love Hamilton, and have many happy memories there visiting my grandparents. I haven't been there in a number of years, and now have actually visited twice in the past month. It is a charming village and home to Colgate University.

One place outside of the village that I had never visited was the Americana Village. Since the buildings were initially moved in the late 1960's, my childhood was approaching its end and I imagine that with restoration, etc. the village was not a tourist attraction during many of the years that I was frequently in Hamilton.

One extremely interesting fact is that my mother is quite certain that my great-grandfather  once owned the farmland upon which the village is located.

Bruce and I wandered around. No buildings were open, though the grounds were well-kept. Any interior pictures were taken though old, wavy glass. It's sad to see the building used now primarily for storage, but it's not hard to imagine the lives that once occupied them.

"Tucked away in a remote corner of Madison County, Americana Village sends visitors back to the 1800s. The little-known village is a restoration and, in a few cases, copies of genuine 19th century buildings that originally stood in and around the village of Hamilton, the home of Colgate University two miles to the south.

The collection of 17 buildings includes homes, a one-room school house, a blacksmith shop, barns, a church, a general store and a covered bridge.

Except for the few copies, the buildings were picked up from their original locations in the late 1960s and placed on the western shore of Lake Moraine by the American Foundation for Management Research, later known as the American Management Association.

The village was the brainchild of the late Lawrence A. Appley, a former speech and communications professor at Colgate University who headed the New York City-based management association for 25 years.

Appley believed that early American villages were the roots of the nation's modern institutions, with each building requiring a certain type of manager - a shop owner, a blacksmith, a barber, a minister, for example. The buildings he collected contained some 30 exhibits, with each showing some art or craft peculiar to the era from 1850 through 1914.

Americana Village is now used mainly as a backdrop for wedding photos.

The exhibits in the buildings are gone, and some of the buildings are showing structural problems. The roof on the rear of one of the structures is collapsing.

Major renovations would be difficult because the village itself generates no revenues and it would be hard to obtain public grants because the center it is a private, for-profit entity, she said.  

Located directly south of the intersection of Lake Moraine Road and West Hill Road, is not open for public tours. However, Hill said the center does not stop people from walking around and peeking in the buildings' windows as long as they don't interfere with anyone's wedding photos."  http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/see_hidden_village_of_restored_1800s_central_new_york_buildings