Okay, so it’s a trek. But it’s worth it. Unlike any of the other museums in this guide, Historic Richmond Town is a living museum. When you visit, you find out what life was like in the late 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries because you don’t just examine the houses and artifacts, you meet individuals. These are people who, dressed in period costume, show you how they would have made a living in the houses over a century ago.

The museum’s earliest building dates back to 1695, when it was inhabited by Hendrick Kroesen and his young family. Historic Richmond Town was one of the earliest Dutch settlements on the island, and because of its central location, it became the center for the Dutch Reformed Church on Staten Island.

The church couldn't afford a minister until 1701, so Hendrick Kroesen served as the community’s voorlezer (lay minister) and schoolteacher from 1696 to 1701. Walk into his house and visit the schoolroom where he would have taught his pupils, as well as the small room in the back where he and his young family would have slept, ate, and done most of their housework, since it was easier to heat just one room.

Visit the Boehm House and hear about its construction and the tools used to build it. Learn how to date a building by looking at such minute details as the shape of the nails holding the house together and the type of molding and paneling used to decorate it. Visit the Bennett House to see an exhibit on “Home-Life in the 1880s.” Visit the Guyon Tavern, the Carpenter Shop, and the Tinsmith Shop to see people demonstrate their trades. Learn how cooking and other domestic activities of the 18th and 19th century farm would have been done in the Guyon-Lake-Tysen House. Also, check out the houses of both tradesmen and farmers and notice the differences between them.

As you walk through the different buildings, ask questions about the houses, the people who would have lived in them, their clothing, and their furniture, and think about how they would have had to perform their daily tasks without the modern conveniences that today we take for granted. Think about social class, trade, and gender roles. Think about which house and which lifestyles seem most and least attractive to you and why. This is a great place to get ideas and to home in on them.

Also, be sure to look at houses that are not currently open to the public. Information on all the buildings, regardless of whether they are open to the public, is available to you in the museum’s library. The library is probably your best resource at Richmond Town. Though small and focused on Staten Island history, it holds a rich assortment of local historical information. If you are doing a paper on anything from colonial days through the Civil War and the Victorian era, come here and see how people experienced those periods on a local level, in areas such as architecture, building construction, businesses, clothing, decorative arts, letters, trades, the military, and daily life. Some of the library’s documents include papers freeing local slaves in 1827, when New York State officially abolished all slavery.

The library contains three sets of diaries: one from 1850, written by the Merrell sisters; one from the late 1800’s that spans about ten years, written by Ida Dudley Dale, a child from a middle-class family; and the Cutting Diaries, which date from the 1880s. These can teach you a lot. Learn what life was like for Ida as she came of age, and notice that as late as the 1880s, the farmer who writes about his daily routine does not even mention Christmas.

The library has a fascinating collection of photographs, many of which were taken by Alice Austen, an upper-middle-class woman who did not have to work until the stock market crashed in 1929. Her pictures include several of girls’ bedrooms, parlors, friends, Staten Island, Manhattan, and people such as the policemen and street cleaners she encountered as she walked around the greater New York area. Her photographs even include shots of the Columbian Exposition, Vermont, Maryland, and Chicago.

Other holdings include the Santoro Collection of Italian American artifacts, two World War I collections and one World War II collection, and material from the Civil War and the Revolutionary War. In addition, the library has a lot of information on linoleum. Bet you didn’t know that the first linoleum factory in the United States was on Staten Island. Now named Travis, the town where the factory was built was first named Linoleumville. You will also find information on Prohibition Park, now Westerleigh, which was originally a community put together by temperance families.

You’ll need an appointment to use this library, but the librarian, Carlotta Defillo is very eager to work with fine high school students like you, so give her a call. Let her know ahead of time what you are interested in looking at. Her number is 718-351-1611 ext. 299. Leave her a message with your name, number, and your topic(s) of interest, and she will be happy to return your call. Using the library is free, but you might have to spend some money on photocopying.

There are several educational programs that you might be able to take advantage of, depending on how much time you have. During the summer, apprenticeships and internships are offered. As an apprentice you will work in costume with a master and learn a skill such as cooking, tin-smithing, dressmaking, spinning or basket making. You will also learn the historical background of the skill and the building you are assigned to. The shortest apprenticeship lasts two weeks, by which time you are expected to show basic proficiency in your skill. As an intern you will also be in costume, but you’ll be discussing the different buildings with visitors as you learn how to interpret them rather than displaying a trade. The Education Department is also willing to offer a research-based internship, which would mainly involve working with the archives in the library, although such an internship does not yet exist.

The Education Department is revamping its activities for school-aged visitors. It now works mainly with lower and middle schools but can adapt projects to fit a high school audience. Four projects in particular that would fit a high school audience are “Acting as Citizens,” where visitors explore the role of individual citizens within the Richmond Town community; “You Be the Judge,” in which students reenact county court scenarios from the 19th century in the 1837 courthouse; “Fiber to Thread,” where visitors learn about how fibers were made into threads, dyed, made into cloth, and then laundered, back before industrialization; and “Trash or Treasure?” where visitors explore what artifacts can tell them about a building’s history.

Unfortunately, many of the programs are meant for groups. However, if you can’t get a group together, the Education Department can still send you information. Dial the main number, 718-351-1611, and ask for the Education Department.

In addition to programs aimed specifically at students, Historic Richmond Town also has several activities that may be interesting alternatives to traditional research. Past events include a Civil War Weekend; a Bluegrass Festival; Old Home Day, when several traditional crafts and skills were demonstrated; and a lecture by Laurel Ulrich, a Harvard professor and noted author of The Age of Homespun, who discussed how objects can tell stories about American history. Historic Richmond Town also holds traditional dinners in June and July and candle-lit tours in December that focus on the history of Christmas. Also, in addition to the general tours currently available, Historic Richmond Town plans to give themed tours of the community.

Another resource is the Staten Island Historical Society. While there are no research opportunities for high school students, it does have several exhibits that may be of interest to you, as well as a small video about Historic Richmond Town that is a good introduction to the community.

Most of the introduction to Historic Richmond Town found in the video can also be found on the website, www.historicrichmondtown.org. We would recommend you check it out to see if it will be useful to you before devoting the time it takes to get there.