The Neville House at Woodville is one of my favorite places, and I was pleased to visit there for this season’s Opening Day early this month. The current, politically correct, name for the facility and the organization responsible for it is “Woodville Experience”, and I commend the folks there for the way they have transformed a tour through an historical building into a much fuller experience of life in southwestern Pennsylvania in the late eighteenth century, at least from the perspective of a wealthy aristocratic family.
John Neville and his family came here from Virginia in 1775 with title to about 1200 acres of prime agricultural land on both sides of Chartiers Creek, between (today) Carnegie and Bridgeville. He had visited this general area as an officer in the Virginia Militia during Braddock’s Campaign in 1755 and was well aware of its potential. Following Dunmore’s War in 1774, he and his son Presley took possession of this estate. They began construction of a mansion in Woodville, then went off to war with General Washington. When they returned after the war they moved into Woodville and began construction of an ever bigger mansion at Bower Hill. By the 1790s the John Neville family was occupying Bower Hill and the Presley Neville family, Woodville. Although Bower Hill was destroyed during the Whiskey Rebellion, Woodville survived and has been lovingly preserved ever since.
Largely through the efforts of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation the Presley Neville House has ended up being owned and maintained by the Neville House Associates, a remarkable group of folks who have been dedicated stewards of a very valuable cultural asset. In recent years they have taken advantage of the small plot of land on which the Neville House is situated and added outbuildings (most recently a barn and a log cabin) in an effort to replicate life on an estate of this type two and a half centuries ago. Each time we visit, the Woodville Experience has been enhanced a little bit more.
Our first stop this Spring was a brand new tent, similar to the type Revolutionary War leaders like George Washington would have used on campaigns. I would describe it as a small circus tent, oval shaped perhaps twenty feet deep and thirty feet wide, with vertical poles around the periphery and two taller ones inside, plus numerous external guy lines and stakes. On this occasion the tent was the venue for an interesting discussion of the life of a member of the (local) Washington County Militia, conducted by an articulate re-enactor who not only looked the part, but was the source of relevant information.
Adjacent to the kitchen in the Neville House is an authentic colonial garden, barren this time of year except for the chicken coop and yard where half a dozen Dominique hens abide. For this weekend, the Ross Farm (located near Eighty Four, PA) had brought two adult sheep and three lambs who were happily exploring the fenced in portion of the garden. They also had attractive skeins of woolen yarn for sale, spun from their sheep.
Next stop was the blacksmith – I never tire of watching a competent smithy demonstrating his craft. This gentleman was particularly impressive. He had a large horizontal bellows which easily provided a blast to his charcoal fire whenever he operated it. We watched him heat an iron rod “cheery red” in his furnace, withdraw it with tongs, and bend it into a perfect hook. I think a future project for the Neville House Associates should be construction of a permanent outbuilding dedicated to blacksmithing.
It was a chilly, blustery day and we were happy to go inside the Still House, which currently doubles as a Gift Shop, and visit with a group of familiar faces there. We did pick up a couple of items – a jar of the “Kane’s Woods” honey that is a key ingredient in our award-winning Honey Bran Cranberry muffins recipe and a children’s book on archaeology which will end up with my youngest grand-daughter.
The log cabin was the location for this week’s demonstration on cooking in colonial times. Here too the re-enactor was outstanding, a lady we have heard several times before, discussing culinary arts in the old days. This time she was preparing a special dessert for a formal dinner and demonstrating it by cooking over an open fire in the fireplace in the cabin. Her dish was baked apples, with meringue is the cored-out center, in custard that she was in the process of pouring into a circular casserole dish when we were there. It certainly had the appearance of an elegant dessert, despite the humble environment in which it was prepared. I suspect it tasted as good as it looked.
When we visited the barn, we were surprised to see that it was set up to prepare hot food and serve it to visitors – the perfect antidote for a cool April afternoon. We quickly ordered a serving of pot roast, “pigs-in-a-blanket” (sausage wrapped in dough), and a Scotch egg. I was familiar with the latter, although I had never had the opportunity to sample one. The Scotch egg is a conventional hard or soft-boiled egg encased in a sphere of sausage meat, coated with bread crumbs, and then deep fried. The final result is about the size of a baseball and is as delicious as it sounds. I should have bought a dozen and brought them home with me. We missed the musical presentation but were able to inspect the performer’s replica gourd banjo; it was difficult for me to resist the temptation to pick it up and pluck it.
All told, it was a very enjoyable experience; we look forward to many more this summer. We certainly recommend a visit to Woodville for anyone with even a tiny interest in local history and the colonial era.