HADLEY, Mass. - After a two-year hiatus because of COVID-19, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum in Hadley reopened to the public on Wednesday afternoon.

The historic home was built in 1752 and remained in the same family for six generations.

The home contains many artifacts, including kitchenware, writing utensils, and furniture over 300 years old.

Elizabeth Porter Phelps, one of the homeowners who became widely known for her successful dairy farm, kept a diary of her experiences, including stories many haven’t heard before.

“There were other families living here,” Karen Sanchez-Eppler, the museum’s board president, said. “There were families of enslaved people in the eighteenth century who were living in this house.”

According to Sanchez-Eppler, while the museum was closed, they received multiple grants from the state to further their research into the history of the home and the colonization of Hadley and the history of Black labor and agriculture.  

Joshua Boston, a slave who was emancipated from the Porter family, became a widely known laborer throughout the valley for his building and linen threshing skills before eventually buying land to call his own.

“In the late 18th century, early century, there was a Black man who owned a farm in Hadley,” Sanchez-Eppler. “That’s a story nobody has been telling. And one of his day labor jobs was to help build a new kitchen space into this house to make its dairy business expand.”  

Boston was entrusted with many roles during his time in the valley, including caring for others through a tax called “The Overseers Of The Poor.”

“There was this fund that belonged to the town and then you would pay individuals to take care of other people,” Sanchez-Eppler said. “And so Joshua Boston was being paid by the Overseers of the Poor frequently to take care of other members of the Black community.”

The museum will be open for guided tours from June 1 to Oct. 15, Saturday through Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m with it being closed on Thursdays and Fridays.