For today’s entertainment, I stopped by the Tate House, which is in the Stroudwater neighborhood here in Portland. Oddly enough, it’s the only one of the open historic houses in Portland that I have not been dragged to sometime during my school career.
The house was built in the 18th century for George Tate, who was the senior mast agent for the Royal navy, which meant he was well to do, and the house has been dressed with period furniture (some authentic, some reproduction), to reflect this. I noticed that they have garden tours on Wednesday, so that was why I went. The house backs down to the Stroudwater River, and there are terraced rows – six currently, of which four are original – that are set up as a period herb garden. It’s smallish now, but they have interesting plans for the place.
I ended up with a personal tour of the grounds and the house, being the only one there at 10:30 in the morning, which was the pretty cool. I’d definitely recommend the stop to any Colonial history buffs.
On an interesting side note, I did find out something interesting about the flock of geese that live along the Stroudwater. I drive by here every week day on my way to work, and Spring, Summer and Fall, there is a flock of domesticated geese that hang around along the river. I’d always assumed they belonged to someone in the neighborhood who sent them somewhere warm in the winter. Turns out, no one owns these geese, and no one knows where they disappear off to every winter. They must be incredibly hardy buggers. I’m just astounded that they take care of themselves.
