Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

OSV offers half-price admission this January and February

Date: 1/15/2015

STURBRIDGE – Old Sturbridge Village is helping local visitors experience the charm of a New England winter by offering adults half-price admission in January and February to one of the nation’s largest and most premier living history museums.

Throughout January and February 2015, adults, parents, and grandparents can visit the museum for $12 – 50 percent off the museum’s regular $24 adult admission – by presenting a Winter Wonderful Savings coupon.

To redeem the winter offer, each adult guest is required to download, print and bring their completed Winter Wonderful Savings coupon to the OSV Visitor Center. Winter Wonderful Savings coupons can be downloaded at www.osv.org and redeemed any day Old Sturbridge Village is open now through Feb. 28.

Old Sturbridge Village offers a full schedule of daily indoor and outdoor winter fun, along with special winter weekend and holiday events, including activities honoring Martin Luther King Jr. on Sunday, Jan. 18; Winter Work & Play weekend Jan. 24 and 25; and WinterFest Feb. 14 to 22, which encompasses Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, and February School Vacation Week.

Because Old Sturbridge Village is a living, working 19th-century New England Village, guests experience firsthand activities rarely seen anywhere else – especially during the winter. Visitors to Winter Work & Play can help dip a year’s worth of candles and help “harvest” ice on the Village Millpond with vintage tools – just as it was done in the days before modern refrigeration when New England ice was exported around the world.  During the Village’s February WinterFest celebration, visitors can see how chocolate was processed by hand from cacao beans and attend an Antique Horse-Drawn Sleigh Rally on Feb. 21 (ice and snow-based activities are weather dependent).

Throughout the winter, Old Sturbridge Village artisans in 1830s-style costumes demonstrate the chores and crafts so important to everyday life in early New England: blacksmithing, “tinning,” printing, pottery-making, shoe-making, farm work and cooking by the fireside. Village historians believe winter visits are especially enlightening since guests can see firsthand how people in the 19th century survived harsh weather without the conveniences of insulation, central heat, snow blowers, and electric appliances.

Winter Special Events at Old Sturbridge Village
 
Celebrating MLK Day
Honoring a Slave Heroine: The Mum Bett Story
Jan. 18


Old Sturbridge Village will celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday one day early this year, with activities planned for Sunday, Jan. 18. The museum will honor the legacy of the equal rights movement with presentations of Honoring a Slave Heroine: The Mum Bett Story. Museum educator and storyteller Tammy Denease will portray Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman, a young slave woman who won her freedom in a Massachusetts court in 1781, setting the stage for the state’s subsequent abolition of slavery. Old Sturbridge Village historians will portray abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Abby Kelley Foster, who was also a leading 19th-century women’s rights activist. All programs are included in museum admission.

Winter Work & Play
Saturday and Sunday
Jan. 24 and 25


Visitors to Old Sturbridge Village can try their hands at dipping a year’s worth of candles and “harvesting” ice the old fashioned way with Village historians and ice expert Dennis Picard. Gathering at the OSV Millpond, guests can experience ice cutting just as it was done in the days before modern refrigeration, when Boston’s “Ice King” Frederic Tudor made a fortune exporting New England ice all over the world (weather conditions permitting).

WinterFest
Feb. 14 to 22


Old Sturbridge Village WinterFest kicks off on Valentine’s Day and continues through the Presidents’ Day holiday and February School Vacation Week. Highlights include demonstrations of processing chocolate by hand using cacao beans, a Washington’s Birthday Ball, toasts to George Washington, and an Antique Sleigh Rally with scores of vintage sleighs pulled by a variety of horses.