‘Soup and Stroll’ celebrates 200 years of Wright House in Peters Township.
Willy Frankfort discusses the thrills and chills of log cabin living in the early 19th century.
A log cabin, built in West Finley Township in 1778, was disassembled and reconstructed behind Enoch Wright House.
Leonard Marracini, who oversees the Mining Room, dons an old-style hat featuring a wick and a flame that enabled miners to see underground – a highly perilous proposition.
Betty Amato, president of the Peters Creek Historical Society, said the Wright House is fortified with brick inside and a harder brick outside.
Once a year, Father Christmas and Father Time share a comfortable coexistence along Venetia Road. They were together again Sunday afternoon to celebrate a Peters Township milestone.
It was, unofficially, the 200th birthday of the Enoch Wright House, a double-brick structure with all original woodwork, original kitchen and original fireplace in every room. The annual “Soup and Stroll” fundraising event – featuring self-guided tours, a savory lunch and re-enactors in period attire – unfolded at the 19th-century home of Enoch Wright. An estimated 200 visitors, similar to last year’s figure, marked the 200th by strolling through the Georgian-style building listed on the National Register of Historic Places plus the log cabin nearby.
“We’re on the national register, but we get no finances,” said Betty Amato, president of the Peters Creek Historical Society, owner of the Wright House, which was completed in 1816. “We have to solicit and raise money. That’s why we have the ‘Soup and Stroll’ – to pay for repairs and electricity.”
But it is worth it, she assures.
“There’s so much history here. That’s why we try to preserve it.”
She donned period clothing, as did her husband Jim – dressed like Santa but recognized as Father Christmas. He distributed candy to children.
Like the “Addams Family” domicile, the Wright House is a museum where people come to see it. There are 10 rooms, including a clothing room, a library (available by appointment) and the fascinating coal-mining exhibit room, where memorabilia abounds. There are coal-related dioramas, donated by the family of the late William “Bits” Jenkins, who made them to preserve coal’s heritage in the region.
“There are no more active mines in the area, but one time there were mines near this house,” said Leonard Marraccini, a society member overseeing the mining room Sunday.
He wore a small hat from the 1890s that, incredibly, was supposed to aid coal miners. It was made of canvas and had a wick where a flame would be lit, to enable workers to see their way.
“These were very dangerous,” Marraccini said. “If an open flame contacted methane (which is common in mines), there would be an explosion.”
That hat, he added, “gave no protection against anything that fell.”
The house is a sturdy structure, to be sure, with the interior reinforced with brick and the exterior consisting of harder brick. All bricks were made on the 400-acre spread the Wright family once owned.
Behind the house is a log cabin, circa 1778, that was not originally on the grounds. “It came from a swamp in Claysville,” said Willy Frankfort, society curator and former president.
The cabin actually was in West Finley Township. It was donated to the historical society, which had the structure disassembled and transported to the Wright House, where it was reassembled. Frankfort, in heavier period clothing to shield the cold, stoked the fireplace while regaling visitors with stories about cabin life two centuries ago. He said a family of 13 once lived there – a cramped situation, to be sure.
The Wright House, literally, is a gift that keeps giving. Betty Amato said Kate Marvin, who lived nearby, donated the Wright House to the society in 1975. Restoring and preserving it has been time-consuming.
“Some things are still a little lopsided,” Amato said. “We’ve had to put windows in, paint, put paper up.”
Overall, though, the place is impressive, a testament to life during the Madison administration. Amato is proud of it.
“We hope we can keep this up, that we have the money to do it.”