By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

Berlin’s Calvin B. Taylor House Museum will welcome visitors to its exhibits again this spring as the facility gears up to reopen its doors officially on Wednesday, April 2.

According to Taylor House President Melissa Reid, the museum opens annually in early May.

This season, however, the exhibition has moved its launch date up a month to give Berlin residents and visitors more time to explore the hall’s collection of historical material.

“We are going to open earlier this year,” Reid said. “We are excited about that. We are trying to make sure that we get the museum open so that more people can have an opportunity to come and visit.”

Beginning April 2, the facility will welcome attendees from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visitors can stop by for a tour or learn about volunteer options and upcoming events.

In addition to the exhibits and guided tours, the museum boasts various programs throughout the year that strengthen its community presence and its mission of telling the stories of Berlin.

A new event that recently debuted is “Fiction and Fiber Arts.” Individuals are encouraged to bring their crocheting, knitting, sewing, quilting, or other fiber projects to the Taylor House’s parlor while a staff member reads aloud classic books.

A Fiber and Fiction Day featuring a reading of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” was held on Sunday, March 9, from noon to 4 p.m. The facility will host another similar day on Sunday, April 13, also from noon to 4 p.m. The classic story has yet to be selected.

“[Fiction and Fiber] gives you a chance to come and sit down in a historic space, and … and be able to appreciate it on a different level than if you were doing a guided tour,” Reid said. “We feel strongly that people understand that the Taylor House Museum was a lived home. People did live there. An event like this gives you a chance to sit in a space people would have lived in when the house was first built.”

The Calvin B. Taylor House was built in 1832 for Isaac Covington and his family. In the early 19th century, the structure was home to Robert J. Henry, who, according to the museum’s website, was “instrumental in bringing the railroad to Berlin.”

In the 1890s and the early 20th century, the house was occupied by its namesake, Calvin B. Taylor, and his wife, Mattie. The museum’s website notes that Taylor was an educator, lawyer, and founder of the Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company in Berlin.

The Fiction and Fiber event and other facility programs aim to highlight that the museum was once home to some of the town’s earliest residents and influential citizens.

The house will also host “Junior Historian” days, one of which is coming up on April 2. Reid said Junior Historians is geared toward upper elementary and lower middle school kids.

The young learners hear about aspects of Berlin life in the 1800s, interact with objects and artifacts from the facility’s collection, and complete a hands-on activity. The April 2 session is centered on scrapbooking. The kids will look at these old works and then make their own.

“We have some scrapbooks that go back to the 1850s,” Reid noted. “That’s a good one because kids really like to see what people felt was important and what they collected in scrapbooks at that time.”

Also on the museum’s docket this spring is the third annual pig roast on Saturday, April 26 at 4 p.m. The event, sponsored by Burley Building Company, will feature brews from the Berlin Beer Company and music by the band Funk Shue. The occasion is free to enter, and platters and drinks are available for purchase.

On the same day as the pig roast, a ribbon cutting will be held for an official sign designating the Taylor House as an arboretum that will allow the public to see a variety of trees. Reid said these grounds will be named the Dr. Mary Humphreys Arboretum after the local woman and biology professor.

Humphreys, who lived on Baker Street before her passing in 2009, was dedicated to science and an early backer and researcher for the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum. The aboretum’s namesake also founded the Humphreys Foundation to offer financial aid to local charities, schools, and nonprofits.

“Humphreys was one of [the museum’s] earliest supporters,” Reid said. “She was a very noted historian in Berlin and was integral in founding the museum. Because of her biology connection, we felt it was appropriate [the arboretum] to be named after her.”

The arboretum was officially announced in 2022, making the Taylor House the first property in Worcester County to carry the classification. The facility’s lawn contains many significant trees, notably a sycamore called “The Healing Tree.”

Now, a ribbon cutting at the April 26 pig roast will unveil an official sign declaring the museum an arboretum.

Among other changes in store for the museum, Reid said people those who want to view the structure’s second-floor exhibit featuring the “Stories of Berlin” can do so this year.

Also, in 2026, through a partnership with Salisbury University, the facility is making modifications and creating new programs to celebrate the United States’s 250 anniversary. The festivities will include redoing the upstairs gallery to highlight the town’s restoration.

“If you haven’t seen the second-floor exhibit, you’ll want to come this year because it will be different next year,” Reid said.

Reid added that the gallery will highlight the changes in the town that created its current aesthetic.

“People think that the Berlin you see now is how it always looked,” she said. “The buildings were always there, but from the 1940s through the 1980s, most of those historic buildings were covered up… and most of the buildings were empty through the 1970s.

“We have some great before-and-after photographs of what that looked like. The new exhibit is going to focus on representing Berlin and how the focus on its historic assets really led Berlin to the way it looks now.”

The “Movies at the Museum” program is also set to return on select second Sundays of the month. Mother’s Day, on May 11, will feature “Freaky Friday.” A July showing will feature “Runaway Bride,” parts of which were filmed in Berlin, and later in the year, residents can catch “Hocus Pocus” and “Night at the Museum.”

More information about the museum’s programs, events, exhibits, and tours can be found on its website at https://www.taylorhousemuseum.org/.