Illinois Adventure

The Clayville Historical Site is located east of the town of Pleasant Plains, and is designed to illustrate pioneering life in the early 1800s. The main attraction is the Broadwell Inn, which was an old stagecoach stop on the Springfield to Beardstown line. It was built by Moses and John Broadwell in 1824 and is the 2nd oldest brick building in Illinois. Also at the site is the Batterton Cabin, which was built by Amar Batterton in 1817 and is the oldest surviving structure in Sangamon County. Other attractions include what may be the Obernagle Cabin and the last operating blacksmith shop in Springfield.

[@stephenburns3678]

Thank you

[@ILLinois7024]

Thanks & hello from Plano, Illinois

[@railgap]

I had not heard that it had been allowed to decline!! I was heavily involved - each summer for many years - with the Clayville Folk Arts Guild when I was a child and teen in the 1970s. My mother was the primary re-enactor, I was given work picking up trash, but I made an absolute pest of myself with every interesting-to-me re-enactor there was: the apothecary, the blacksmith (who we often saw at other re-enactment events around Illinois and Indiana), a very old button-maker who cut mother of pearl buttons from clamshells on an original antique button-cutting machine, and on and on. To this day, if I had to reboot society from scratch with a small village, I could teach people how to make soap, process flax, cotton and wool (and I've got a good handle on the spinning and weaving too), perform basic blacksmithing operations (a bad shoulder prevents me from doing it myself now) shingle-making, processing cane into mollasses/sorgum, and so many other things I picked up as a kid - which were antiquated skills even then - I can't even list them all now. And given that I don't do re-enactment any more, well, I hope I never need to know or teach those things... but my guess is that our grandchildren will be screwed.

[@escubasteve]

Hope the tours open up in 2021!

[@bethbartlett5692]

I can't get over how my mind goes to - the imagining of being in that Inn - as a Woman in any role and certainly in the day-to-day routines and upkeep... *the sounds, the smell, and the chronic CLEANING Necessary!*
The boots would have drummed a thump and scuff across those wood floors, dragging in the dirt,mud, and manure, from the areas outside.
The smoke from the fires a constant drift in the air, creating sit on the fabrics and walls, hazing the glass and mirrors.
The mosquitos, flies, and dirt-dobbers a-buzz routinely.
...and these merely the side effects of "the work" required to carry out "a Day at the Inn"
Hope this doesn't sour any Romantic Visions of the past - with the Reality of its experiences.
We are a curious bunch - us humans, always reaching for the "Story-book Versions of Life" - though, *"we should never quit doing just that"* ...