
DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 1997               TAG: 9704230747

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ANN BARRY BURROWS, CORRESPONENT 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

STEPPING BACK IN TIME FRANCIS LAND HOUSE A TREAT FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS

SCHOOLTEACHERS know about the Francis Land House in Virginia Beach, and I was happy to discover it. It's an 18th century house-museum with fine valuables. But it is also a living demonstration of the past, and staff members there know how to welcome children.

As in Colonial Williamsburg, at Francis Land House the staff wears the white ruffled caps, long skirts, shifts and vests and other period clothing of long ago. Their goal is to depict life as it was on a wealthy Virginia plantation 250 years ago.

Every Thursday afternoon, a group of seamstresses gathers by the fireplace to sew reproductions of linen antiques. The home is outfitted with wooden water buckets crafted by visiting coopers and wares of visiting blacksmiths.

Schoolchildren and Scout troops often arrive on field trips.

On a recent visit, museum specialist Vicki Harvey let us dress up in period clothing. She sat down by a spinning wheel and explained it, handing fluffs of wool to the three children we had in tow. Later, she handed wooden Jacob's Ladder toys to the children and also gave each of them a turn on the wooden loom.

While 2-year-old Chelsea Giambrone paraded around the home's brick basement in a flowered colonial dress that trailed after her by several feet, my daughter, 5-year-old Morgan, was encouraged to sit with the seamstresses and try her hand at needle stitching.

She would come home with her own little ``needle book'': two squares of linen and wool that she had stitched down the middle and closed like a book. Katherine Warden, a seamstress who was visiting from Colonial Williamsburg, said that wool contains lanolin and the little books keep needles from rusting.

Another sewing project had Toby Netherton bent over her work: a ``pudding cap,'' which comprised three stuffed strips made to fit around a toddler's head.

``It is sort of shaped like a bicycle helmet,'' she said. The cap saved children from the usual scrapes, bumps and lacerations that come from falling down. No need for 18th century children to bash their brains into pudding - hence the name, she said.

While we toured a few rooms of the house that were furnished with antiques, Harvey cheerfully told the children to raise their chins, take a deep breath, and clasp their hands behind their backs. We didn't stay there long.

Soon we were outdoors in a fenced herb garden, smelling lemon balm and rosemary, and swinging the gate and watching the iron ball and chain close it. The children noticed they were walking on oyster shells instead of gravel.

A broad stretch of grass bordered by tulips was a great spot for our picnic and silly games. We played one - ring-around-the-rosie - that is even older than the Francis Land House.

As a historical site operated by the city, the house is nearly 11 years old.

A birthday celebration on May 16, from 5 to 8 p.m., is called ``Legends of the Beach'' and will feature an ``appearance'' by the Witch of Pungo and storytellers with tales of Blackbeard and early American life, as well as music by local musicians. There is no charge to attend.

Special programs are held every Wednesday, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., during July and August. They feature colonial games, vegetable harvesting, weaving and other crafts. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ANN BARRY BURROWS

Chelsea Giambrone, 2, and Michael Haycox, 3, play at the

colonial-style gate at the 250-year-old Francis Land House.

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IF YOU GO

What: Francis Land House

Where: 3131 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach

Admission: $3 for adults, $2.50 for senior citizens, $1.50 for

older students and $1 for children ages 6 to 12. Family memberships

are $15.

Hours: Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.