Greeting guests as they enter the Matthew Curtiss House museum on Main Street, junior docent Mairin Hayes appears at the door as an authentically dressed Colonial girl. She welcomes guests to her 1750s world perfectly preserved inside the circa 1750 saltbox home.

For Mairin and others, history holds an allure. She enjoys giving others a glimpse of the past. As the new year begins, the Newtown Historical Society hopes to welcome new volunteer docents in that effort.

In a recent e-mail, interim head docent Amy Fallas-Kerr wrote: “Our docents perform a critical role for the Newtown Historical Society and help us achieve our mission by creating opportunities for the community to engage with living history.”

Docents staff open houses, programs for Scouts, and annual districtwide second grade tours at the Matthew Curtiss House, which serves as the historical society’s headquarters. Docents also communicate the “narratives of Newtown’s history and interpretation of [the Matthew Curtiss House] museum,” according to Ms Fallas-Kerr. They also “facilitate community learning, encourage civic involvement, and share the stories that form our town’s past and present identity,” she added. “Many of our public programs and educational functions would simply not be possible without them.”

She also said that junior docents “are some of the society’s most enthusiastic volunteers. It’s incredibly rewarding to see them volunteer with the society throughout the years and witness the lasting impact that this program has for our local students. We hope to instill a lifelong love of history.”

Ms Fallas-Kerr passionately believes that history is “not just a tedious list of chronologies and proper nouns, but a vibrant collection of stories and shared experiences that contribute to our contemporary reality.”

Barbara Wilson, the historical society’s event coordinator for Matthew Curtiss House and The Little Red School House, the historic building on Cold Spring Road, said, “Docents are the face and voice of the society. Visitors are experiencing history through our docents. Engaging our younger visitors is important because we want to show them how much fun learning about history can be. So being a docent is a very important and rewarding role within the society.”

Ms Wilson also made an appeal for volunteer docents. She said that open house events require four senior docents and four junior docents “to be adequately covered.” Although the society has “a few very dedicated docents that will volunteer almost every month,” the society needs more docents “to fill the shifts each month,” she said.

Several junior docents will soon be graduating and moving on to college.

“We hope they will come back to us later as senior docents, but in the meantime we need to replace them as junior docents,” Ms Wilson said.

Meet The Docents

A docent for 11 years, since she was 7, Mairin was the “very first junior docent,” she said.

Newtown Historical Society hosts open house events eight Sundays a year. Mairin said, “I love going, I love dressing up. I feel very comfortable there. It’s somewhere that I feel at ease and I can be around people who have the same interest as me.”

Dressing in colonial clothes, said Mairin, “felt natural to me, it feels like it’s a part of me that’s always been there and I can bring it out.” When asked whether she could have lived in 1750, however, she admits it would have been a challenge.

“It’s beyond what we can imagine to live back then, there was no running water, the fireplace was the heat,” she said. Mairin would like to “go on vacation to 1750, but then I would like to come back. Everything was so labor intensive.”

Now a high school senior, Mairin remembers visiting the Matthew Curtiss House with her mother Elin Hayes, who had been involved with the historical society. Mrs Hayes is a former president of the society.

“I liked going to the house and seeing what life was like,” said Mairin. She also remembers a second grade class trip: “Someone was dressed up as Mrs Curtiss and I thought it was so cool and I wanted to be a part of it.”

As she grew older, Mairin discovered Williamsburg, where Colonial life is lived every day. “I fell in love with it,” she said.

History is her chosen path. She sees herself as a future elementary school teacher or moving to Williamsburg to be a costumed interpreter.

Now 18, Mairin is eligible as a senior docent, and would like to keep working the annual summer history camps and other activities, she said.

To any aspiring docents, she said, “It’s a really great way to share an interest with other people and to be around people who share the same interest.” She noted that there are not a lot of places to go to talk about Colonial history.

“If you have that passion, [serving as a docent] is a great way to bring it out,” she said.

Junior Docent Erik Benson will be 16 in March. He started work as a docent two years ago, but was first interested in history following a school trip. He visited a history camp in second grade, where his interest first began, he said. He has been helping with history camps for the last two years, which led to being a junior docent, he said.

He enjoys how history is “so relevant around here — everything is so old.” From his window he can see a stone wall that is “about 300 years old,” and near his Tamarac Road home are other 1750s houses like the Matthew Curtiss House that he can see every day.

Regarding the Matthew Curtiss House, he said, “Its history definitely interests me.” As a docent, he said, “I like teaching people about its history, and I like to tell people about things they didn’t know.”

He also likes to point out the origin of everyday terms that had literal meanings in New England. House warming, he said, “was when people would bring coals to a new homeowner’s house and they would use those coals for a fire and literally warmed the house.” That scenario “definitely happened in Newtown. I like teaching people things like that,” said Erik, who hopes to continue with the historical society, and would encourage friends to participate in camps or as docents.

“You can learn a lot,” he said.

Senior Docent Mike Asselta moved to Connecticut from Long Island about ten years ago. A former history teacher and self-described history buff, Mr Asselta has stepped into the roles of Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere, and has given talks on the Civil War and Revolutionary War. He started as a docent at Keeler Tavern in Ridgefield ten years ago, and started in Newtown five years ago.

“I firmly believe that kids don’t get American history in school, and that they should have the chance,” said Mr Asselta, who has become is a familiar figure during second grade tours at The Matthew Curtiss House and at its summer camps. He has also taught classed in the one-room schoolhouse on the front lawn of Middle Gate School.

Adding a bit of trivia at the mention of the one-room school house, he said, “When kids went to school at Middle Gate, each family was responsible for bringing in wood. If kids didn’t bring wood to school, then that kid had to sit farthest away [from the stove],” he said. Also, desks were situated around the wall, with seats high enough that the students’ feet could not touch the floor.

Of his time as a docent, he said, “Mainly it’s for the kids, so they learn history — you can never get too much and you never know every answer,” he said. Also, many people who come through the Matthew Curtiss House have old homes of their own and they have questions, Mr Asselta said.

He gave a quick glimpse of his time as a docent in Newtown. An incident happened there, two or three years ago during a session of the summer camp the historical society hosts annually.

“We cook, make cobblers and pies in the fireplace,” he said. “Smoke was coming through chimney, so someone called the fire department and they came running and it was just someone cooking.”

With a bit more trivia, he noted that former resident Matthew Curtiss was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. Private owners who later purchased the house “over the years after the Curtiss family” made some changes and closed in the chimney, Mr Asselta said. Fireplaces are in the basement, on the main level, and upstairs, and prior owners may have closed fireplaces off from the chimney to keep in the heat from a heating system later installed. When the historical society purchased the house, the chimneys were reopened.

The society also in recent years reshingled the roof. Making an appeal on the society’s behalf, Mr Asselta said the society relies on financial donations to operate. Without that help, “they’re out of business and we lose the heritage of the old buildings. I think it’s important we have a 1750s building in town,” he said.

He recommends becoming a docent.

“You have a chance to talk to the kids, they are all interested, with smiles on their faces.”

Fifteen-year-old Dani Gaiser is a junior docent who has been volunteering for a few years.

She remembers a history camp, and shadowing an older docent, and was soon on a waiting list to be a junior docent.

Now, when someone comes in for a tour, Dani said, “I show them around the house and answer questions they have. They want to know about furniture, how old things are, where they come from.

“I like giving the tours and it’s fun to teach someone something new that they didn’t know,” she said. “Every time I go in I learn something new from other docents. I like learning something new. The house itself has a lot of history behind it, and so does the furniture, so there is a lot to keep track of.”

Dani likes the kind of history “where you can live through it and participate with the audience, unlike history in school

“As a docent you can walk around and be a part of it and live in the time period. I like 1700s out of most [periods] that I have read about it. I like working in gardens and with animals and being with friends, which they tended to do … I am not a technology person.”

If there is a young student who is considering volunteering, she recommends that they attend a history camp “to see if they are interested.”

What Docents Do

Ms Wilson provided detailed descriptions of a docent’s role, activities, and requirements.

Senior docents are adults, and junior docents are students 10 years old and older. Senior docents give tours, supervise the junior docents, conduct school and scout tours independently, sell publications, and interact with visitors. The junior docents, depending on age, experience, and maturity, may simply greet visitors at the door, or give tours. Some more experienced junior docents give tours just as interesting and informational as the senior docents, Ms Wilson said.

Docents are the face and voice of the society. Visitors are experiencing history through the docents. Engaging younger visitors is important because “we want to show them how much fun learning about history can be,” Ms Wilson said.

Each year the junior docents decorate for the holiday open house, complete with homemade decorations.

Docents are always invited to help as volunteers at other events as well, such as the House & Garden Tour, Antiques Market, and Silhouette Fundraiser.

Each docent receives a manuscript with information on the Curtiss family, the house, and the collections in each room.

“Everyone comes to us with a different level of knowledge and interest,” Ms Wilson said.  “We do not expect a new docent to memorize the manuscript, but as they do more tours and answer more questions, they will naturally pick up the information.”

Depending on focus and personal interests, docents will conduct tours focusing on furniture, on the social aspect of the Colonial era, or on Matthew Curtiss and his family.

A newer program of docent seminars helps reinforce or provide additional knowledge to the docents.

“It’s also a great opportunity for the docents to get together and bond since it’s rare for all of them to be together at one time,” she said.

New docents also receive a tour by an experienced docent and shadow for a shift or two. They then get on the schedule, but will continue working with an experienced docent until they are comfortable.

The greatest need, according to Amy Fallas-Kerr, is for senior docents. Anyone interested in history, culture, education, and the arts can inquire about becoming a docent. Contact Ms Kerr at amyfallaskerr@gmail.com or 203-885-0617.