A small bronze statue of a woman on a horse sits on a table in thehall of The Sargent House Museum in downtown Gloucester. In a rush ofinspiration, volunteer Kathy Slifer embellishes it with holly.Moments later, fellow decorator Peggy Flanagan sneaks up and redoesit with red-twig dogwood.
'That statue's been rearranged three times this morning,' saysMartha Oakes, museum director.
In a forgiving holiday humor, Slifer only laughs at Flanagan'sartistic ambush as they continue in the community effort to decoratethe 1782 Georgian-style house for Christmas.
'The fun part is, it's such an improvisation,' says Slifer. 'Happythings happen.'
The house was built for feminist philosopher and writer JudithSargent (1751-1820) and her first husband, John Stevens. Sargentchampioned equality, justice, and opportunity for all, so the househas always been a place of cooperation and innovation. It has evenbeen a rectory. After Stevens's death, the young widow married theRev. John Murray (1741-1815), the founder of Universalism in America,whose 1805 church (now a Unitarian Universalist Church) still standsacross the street, its Federalist spire, then as now, a beacon for mariners.
The house, which opened as a museum in 1919, has become arepository for important portraits of the early Universalists as wellas for Sargent family artifacts, including a number of paintings byJohn Singer Sargent (1856-1925), whose father was born in Gloucester.
Inclusiveness, a guiding principle for Sargent and Murray, is alsoa priority for Oakes. Rather than appoint members to a committee,she places a notice in the local newspaper inviting aspiringdecorators to help prepare the museum for the Middle Street Walk. Held each year on the second Saturday of December, the eventcelebrates the historic neighborhood. Middle Street is closed totraffic to make room for pedestrians, horse-drawn wagons, and English-handbell ringers.
Because the museum is decorated for just one day, volunteers cango all out with fresh materials, arriving with evergreens, fruit, andyards of orange zest.
While the museum aims for historical accuracy, circa 1790, it isnot rigid or exclusionary when it comes to holiday offerings. Talented amateur florists often leave flower arrangements at the doorlike foundlings, sometimes including scarlet poinsettias, which wouldnot have been available in Judith Sargent's time. But the plants areput to good use. More often, though, the materials used to deck themuseum halls are from no farther away than the arborvitae and boxwoodon the property, which is above Gloucester's West End with a view tothe harbor.
'It's a good time to trim them anyway,' Flanagan says of themuseum's shrubs. She's moved on to the dining room, making micro-adjustments of pine cones and sea grass in a Canton bowl. The tableis set for tea, a meal chosen because all that the museum owns of theSargent silver is the pudding spoons.
As if to compensate for the lack of cutlery, the table is laid outwith decorative orange kumquats and yellow baby squash from Henry'sMarket in Beverly. While a supermarket might not be in historiccharacter, the exotic produce is. Gloucester, being a seaport,would have had access to a variety of tropical fruits, including thepineapples, oranges, and pomegranates tucked into displays around thehouse.
Some fruits, though, are regional, such as the heirloom Ladyapples that line the fireplace mantel, over which hangs a seascape byanother local favorite, Gloucester artist Fitz Hugh Lane (1804-1865).
In the front parlor, newly restored with glazed finishes on thepaneled wainscot, the faux-marble fireplace sports no stockings hungwith care. ('This is not a Victorian Christmas,' says Oakes).
But the fireplace is not bare.
Cranberries, holly, and orange slices dried to an aromaticcrispness and tied with bits of red raffia combine to create aholiday atmosphere.
While the decorations differ from year to year, depending upon whoresponds to the notice in the newspaper, the museum has sometraditional mainstays. Topiaries fashioned from sprigs of boxwood arefestooned with garlands of orange peel, an amazing feat of fruitdexterity performed by museum board member Roger Pheulpin. After heremoves a thin layer of skin with his zester in long spirals,everyone joins together pressing cloves into the artfully scoredfruit, which is then placed at nose level on mantels and shelves.
Every volunteer brings his or her own special gift to thedecorating experience, from zesting oranges to wiring apples tomaking wreaths. But other less-tangible virtues - such as the goodwill shown even in the face of adversity and red-twig dogwoods - areas vital to the cause. Judith Sargent and John Murray would havewanted the house decorated in no other way.
The Sargent House Museum, 49 Middle Street, Gloucester, 978- 281-2432 (www.sargent house.org), is open to the public from MemorialDay to Columbus Day. The house will be open for the Middle StreetWalk on December 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information onthe Middle Street Walk, call the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, 978-283-1601.
