Norwich’s newest museum has received funding, courtesy of Connecticut Humanities. The non-profit group has presented a $3,975 grant to the Society of the Founders of Norwich, which will be used to upgrade the exhibits at the Joseph Carpenter Silversmith Shop on the Norwichtown Green.

Society Treasurer and Museum Program Director Camilla Farlow said the money will provide for more permanent and attractive presentation boards that will offer information about the early colonial history of the green, and the many tradespeople and residents who lived around it. They will also describe the artifacts found at the Silversmith shop building while renovations were being done through the years.

The boards will replace temporary sheets of paper that are now posted in the museum outlining the historical information.

The silversmith shop was opened by the society in June as a museum, after having been used as private office space for a local attorney. It’s considered one of the few 18th-century frame tradesmen’s shops still standing in New England

Farlow said Joseph Carpenter built his silversmith shop on the green in 1772. Unlike many tradesmen’s shops of the time, he housed his business in a permanent structure, complete with cellar, chimney and furnace.

Most tradesmen would conduct their business in an outdoor shed type of building, which could be easily moved.

“Carpenter intended to stay right where he was,” said Farlow.

Many of the original architectural features of the building remain intact, including the exterior walls, dirt-floor basement, doors and sliding windows “although they don’t slide anymore,” Farlow said. The building was upgraded to include necessary modern amenities, including electricity, heating and cooling units and recently renovated restroom facilities.

The highlight of the building, though, is the original forge used by Carpenter. It was discovered by the Founders Society when it was preparing to open the museum. Farlow said a chimney with a hearth in front of it was discovered in a closet. “That’s got to be a fireplace,” said Farlow at the time. But a couple of local blacksmiths looked at it, and said it was a forge. Work was done to uncover it further, and it was determined to be the type of forge you would find in a small 18th-century silversmith business in New England.

“Having the forge is unique,” said Farlow. “We’ve been researching the forges of that time, and there are hardly any still in existence. Even the one used by Paul Revere is gone. We have a little piece of history that’s not in existence anywhere anymore.”

Input from forge experts will be sought by the museum to further restore the Carpenter forge.

Carpenter was also a clockmaker, and one of his finished works is now on display in the museum.

Todd Keating, whose house is on the green, recently donated the grandfather clock. Keating collects clocks, and he and his wife showed up at the museum with the clock in his pickup truck. He and his wife set it up.

“The clock was built by Carpenter in 1785,” said Farlow.

The wooden cabinet was built by Felix Huntington, a member of the famous colonial-era family that lived in Norwich.

The Carpenter shop also has artifacts from other 18th-century tradesmen who worked and lived around the green. Two Windsor-style chairs by S.B. Case, a cabinetmaker, and a barrel made by a cooper who lived in what is now a red saltbox house located across the green from the museum are on display.

Items uncovered during a 1950s renovation of the Carpenter site, as well as recent discoveries, are either on view, or will be in the future. They include buttons, shoe buckles, a two-tine fork and bracelets, most likely made by Carpenter.

A Civil War-era medicine pouch used by a military medic was discovered under a bird’s nest in a corner of the attic. The Founders Society plans to obtain a larger and taller display case for the more fragile items that have been found.

“The shop has been there for almost 250 years,” said Farlow. “No matter how much you clean something out, when you clean it again, you always find something else.”

Farlow said items currently at the Leffingwell House Museum, also run by the Society of the Founders, will be put on display at the Carpenter Shop from time to time. All of the exhibits will relate to the tradesmen who lived around the green. They will include the original 18th-century deed that gave the green to the people of Norwich by the proprietors in the area. Copies of the deed can be purchased in the gift shops of both museums for $1.

Maps showing where the different tradespeople lived will also be on display. Farlow said a cobbler once resided at the corner of Mediterranean Lane and East Town Street. A large brick house on the green was owned by a wig maker, and later a blacksmith. It was later acquired by Joseph Carpenter’s brother, who expanded it. A history of the taverns and meetinghouses that were in the area is also to be exhibited.

“What we’re trying to do is identify the different people who lived around the green, along with the history of the house,” said Farlow. “As we do more research, we’ll find more businesses, do write-ups on them, and present them on a rotating basis in the Carpenter shop.”

Farlow said the grant is especially welcome, because it is quite costly to upgrade exhibit presentations. “It’s been quite an accomplishment to open a new museum, instead of closing one, during the pandemic. A lot of museums have been strapped for money.”

She said the Founders group “thought about (opening the museum) for a long time, and then figured, ‘Okay, we’ll fall on our sword, do it on a shoestring, put out what we can, and slowly upgrade when we can.’”

She said the grant then came through, and “we said, ‘why not?’”

The grant money will also be used to put a new sign in front of the museum.

The Carpenter Shop is open Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., free of charge through Oct. 30. It will then close until spring 2022, when a 250th anniversary celebration of the building showcasing the grant-funded improvements will be held.