PLAINFIELD — The Shaw Hudson House is a historical treasure that few people have gotten a chance to see, something the Plainfield Historical Society hopes will change with the launch of a virtual tour that’s set to officially go live Monday.
“It was time to really get the word out,” said Lori Austin, the society’s secretary and webmaster.
She also described the tour as “above and beyond what I was expecting.”
Austin, a recently retired schoolteacher, successfully applied for the two grants — a Massachusetts Humanities Digital Capacity Grant and a grant from the Plainfield Cultural Council — that funded the creation of the tour. The total cost of the tour was $4,500.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in the tour coming to be, Austin said that, even in pre-pandemic times, aside from a select few days out of the year, people could only visit the Main Street house by appointment.
What spurred the tour’s creation, she said, was when members of the Plainfield Fire Department were brought in to move a heavy cabinet and revealed that they’d never been inside the house before and didn’t know its history.
“And they all lived right near the house,” Austin said.
Built in 1833 for Dr. Samuel Shaw, the Shaw Hudson House was inhabited by Shaw until his death in 1870. It includes Shaw’s office, which Austin describes as a “time capsule” and the house’s “crown jewel.”
“When he got ill and walked out of it, it was never really touched again,” Austin said.
The last person to live in the house was Shaw’s descendent Clara Elizabeth Hudson, who wrote the essay “The Romances of a Country Doctor” and her memoir, the “Plain Tales from Plainfield.”
Austin said that while the tour was originally going to be just historical research, it ended up including a lot of material from Hudson’s works after she re-read them.
“We had such rich writing from her,” Austin said
The tour includes research from both Austin and historian William Hosley, as well as touching on Plainfield and its history outside of the house.
The technical side of the virtual tour was put together by Mark Roessler, whose work Austin praised.
“I’ve been doing these tours for a long time,” said Roessler.
Roessler’s company, Panorambles, is based out of Northampton, and he said that the tour is the exact kind of project he enjoys doing.
“The house is full of incredible things,” he said. “It was a real delight to have full access.”
Roessler also spoke about the doctor’s office in the house, and described reading books and going through drawers there.
“There’s ancient books in there and just real prizes,” he said. “There’s lots and lots of detail to discover.”
The virtual tour officially goes live on Monday on the historical society’s website and on Panorambles’ website.
Following Hudson’s death in 1963, the house was placed under the care of a trust overseen by the Plainfield Congregational Church. The trust continues to be the steward of the property, although the historical society is also allowed to use some of the house’s rooms for research and its museum.
Austin said that the tour is going to be sent out to historical societies, museums and colleges. And she expressed hope that it would catch the eye of a professor to create an internship for cataloging and preserving the doctor’s office.
Austin said the tour’s purpose is also to increase appreciation for local history and to serve as a tool for educators.
Currently, in-person viewings of the house are available by appointment, and Austin is working on a docent manual and a slide show for when they can become more frequent.
Austin said she considered the tour her gift to the town, and that delving into the history of the family that once lived in the house was a very personal experience.
“It really was a labor of love,” she said.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.