Mark on the Shore

Mark’s Score   8.9

I have been meaning to go to this museum for months, but every time I was in Berlin, it was closed. I love small town museums, they chronical our past, and explain who we are. But there is one down side to these museums, they are closed most of the time, so your timing has to be perfect. Visiting these museums is more serendipity than plan. 

The Taylor house was saved by the Town of Berlin in the early 80s. The building was scheduled for demolition when the town stepped in and restored it.  Taylor House was built by Isaac Covington, a local merchant, in 1832.  It is one of the finest examples of Federalist architecture in the area. Calvin Taylor, who founded the Taylor Bank and was also mayor of Berlin, purchased the house in the 1890s. The Taylor’s added the rear wing and installed stained glass windows in the front of the house. 

I was the only guest the day I visited, meaning that the docent gave me her full attention and the deluxe tour. In my view, museums centered on a mansion tend to be less interesting than more eclectic collections housed in unassuming buildings. But that is not the case at the Taylor Museum. In fact, there is very little in the museum that focuses on the lives of the Taylor family. The museum chronicles the history of the town itself, and it is full of local lore and trivia that make the tour delightfully interesting. 

There is much to see in this house, obviously the period furnishings and architectural features, but for me it is the obscure details about Berlin and its people over the centuries that capture my imagination. For instance, they have an innocuous wicker chair with shortened legs on the second floor. I thought it was a child’s chair, but in fact, it is a fireplace chair. It is much shorter than a normal chair so that a person could tend to the fire while sitting down. 

Then there are the displays dealing with religion and slavery that tell interesting stories about how local citizens impacted the country at large. There is the story of Reverend Charles Tindley. Why is he important? Everyone thinks that it was Pete Seeger who wrote the song “We shall Overcome.” Not true, it was written by reverend Tindley. All Pete did was change “I’ll” to “We.” 

Then there is the Isaiah Fassett display, containing his manuscription and service documents. He later served in the United States Colored Troops unit during the Civil War. I learned about the history of this unit at the Talbot Museum. This unit was created in 1863, up till that point blacks were not allowed to serve in the US military. 

These small-town museums build a tapestry of our past, a story in one museum merges with a story told at another. As I travel from one place to another these stories bring clarity and focus, creating a coherent picture of Delmarva’s past, explaining who we are and why.

What else is there to do in Berlin?