New Hampshire人文传统之斯卓贝里班奇区(Strawbery Banke)


于1998年修复完成的舍本屋(Sherbourne House)建于1695，是博物馆馆内最老的建筑物

你曾置身在一栋屋龄比美国历史还要老的房子吗？假如你来到朴次茅斯市(Portsmouth)市内一个充满历史意义的斯卓贝里班奇区(Strawbery Banke)，您就可以看到这栋拥有300年历史的房子及其他许许多多的古老建筑物。斯卓贝里班奇区是由一批具有历史意义的建筑物所组成的户外博物馆。因为它们有助于我们了解数百年前的人们的生活方式，所以它们被完整的保存了下来。

斯卓贝里班奇区内的其中一栋建筑物是舍本屋(Sherbourne House)，它建于1695年，建筑者是船长约翰舍本(John Sherbourne)。通过观察这栋房子的建筑风格，我们可以知道早期居住在朴次茅斯市的欧洲殖民者都来自英国。舍本屋内其中一间房间的天花板上涂有鲜艳的色点，这些色点都是用海棉点上去的，当我们进入房间时会因为这些简单的色点而豁然开朗。我们很容易这样假想：早期的移民者应该是个性极为严肃的一群人。但是通过这个简单的装饰物－明亮的天花板色点，我们却又发现，这些移民们有着超出我们想像的温和友好的一面，或许根本就和我们没有什么区别。

Have you ever been in a house that's older than the United States? If you go to Strawbery Banke, a historic area in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, you can see this 300-year-old house plus a lot of other very old buildings. Strawbery Banke is an outdoor museum of historic buildings. They are being preserved because they help us learn how people lived hundreds of years ago.

One of the buildings in Strawbery Banke is Sherbourne House, which was built in 1695 by Captain John Sherbourne. The architecture of the house (the way it's built) tells us that the early European settlers of Portsmouth were English. On the ceiling in one of the rooms are brightly colored spots that had been sponge-painted. The spots make the room look more cheerful. We tend to think of the early settlers as being very serious. Perhaps this simple decoration -- bright ceiling spots - lets us see them as more good-natured than we thought and, maybe, even more like ourselves.