In November 0f 2019 our family visited the Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle (two different locations, you can purchase a combined ticket, or just for one building. Both are the creative endeavors of the same man, Henry Mercer. More on this later.)
While wandering through the Mercer Museum an employee stopped us and told us to be sure not to miss the children’s wing because, even though she recognized our boys were too old for the activities in the children’s room, there was a stunning fireplace we weren’t to miss. And then she casually mentioned that it was in honor of the folk song Arkansas Traveler.
We were all delighted and very excited to find this fireplace, as my boys dedicate some of their freetime to memorizing folk songs and this was one they had just learned (… because yes, they looked ahead at what AO was recommending…)
We found the fireplace and Judah (then 12) bravely sang the song and said it could be shared. The video and lyrics are below.
Oh once upon a time in Arkansas
An old man sat in his little cabin door
And fiddled at a tune that he liked to hear
A jolly old tune that he played by ear
It was raining hard but the fiddler didn’t care
He sawed away at the popular air
Though his rooftop leaked like a waterfall
That didn’t seem to bother the old man at all
A traveler was riding by that day
And stopped to hear him a-fiddling away
The cabin was afloat and his feet were wet
But the old man still didn’t seem to fret
So the stranger said Now the way it seems to me
You’d better mend your roof said he
But the old man said as he played away
I couldn’t mend it now it’s a rainy day
The traveler replied that’s all quite true
But this I think is the thing for you to do
Get busy on a day that is fair and bright
Then patch the old roof till it’s good and tight
But the old man kept on a-playing at his reel
And tapped the ground with his leathery heel
Get along said he for you give me a pain
My cabin never leaks when it doesn’t rain
It left me with so many questions! Why THIS folk song? Why, when representing an American folk song in America, did Mr. Mercer spell “traveller” the British way? No one knew the answers to my questions, and that’s ok. A little mystery is fun to muse over.
Hopefully you will be able to zoom in and see the amazing details. And even better – visit one day!
Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle are located in Doylestown, PA and are a few miles from each other. They are amazing and I highly recommend with a couple of cautions: there is a lot to see and a lot to touch – and you’re asked to refrain from touching! Young children would struggle, especially on the hour long tour where you need to stay with the group and not touch or lean on anything.
From the website:
“Built between 1908-1912, Fonthill was the home of Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930). Archaeologist, anthropologist, ceramist, scholar and antiquarian, Mercer built Fonthill both as his home and as a showplace for his collection of tiles and prints.
By 1897 handmade objects were being discarded in favor of new machine-made goods. Historian and archaeologist Henry Mercer (1856-1930) recognized the need to collect and preserve the outmoded material of daily life in America before it was swept away by the Industrial Revolution. Mercer gathered almost 30,000 items ranging from hand tools to horse-drawn vehicles and assembled this encyclopedic collection in a system of his own devising. To enhance the collection’s educational value, and to share it with the public, Mercer decided to design and build a museum to display the artifacts.
In 1916, Mercer erected a 6-story concrete castle. The towering central atrium of the Museum was used to hang the largest objects such as a whale boat, stage coach and Conestoga wagon. On each level surrounding the court, smaller exhibits were installed in a warren of alcoves, niches and rooms according to Mercer’s classifications — healing arts, tinsmithing, dairying, lighting and so on. The end result of the building is a unique interior that is both logical and provocative.”
Mercer Museum is one that you can go at your own pace, with helpful employees throughout the museum. Fonthill Castle are guided one hour tours. We thoroughly enjoyed both and I’d be hard pressed to say which one to visit if you could only see one! Perhaps the guided tour at Fonthill Castle as our tour guide definitely brought Mr. Mercer to life for us.
However both locations offered so many unique and inspiring things to see – imagine order ancient “receipts” dating back to 2300 BC from a mail order catalog?! He did it! And they are on display for you to look at. (I’ve shared them above, the temple receipt for sheep and goats.)
If you are military or local with a library then admittance to these two museums are currently free!
