By Sharon Sheridan
With a skirl of bagpipes and a rainbow of tartans, Macculloch Hall celebrated its 200th birthday Sunday with a Scottish-themed concert at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at the family founder’s grave site and a festive procession to a reception at the historic hall.
In this season of ghosts, the day evoked memories of one of Morristown’s storied families — and brought descendants here to celebrate.
“It’s that lingering sense of history and hospitality and welcome that resonates still today,” Macculloch Hall Historical Museum Director Carrie Fellows told the gathering before the reception. “Happy Birthday ‘Old House!'”
The museum, located at 45 Macculloch Ave., was the family home of the Maccullochs, whose roots link back to Scotland. The property once included a 26-acre gentleman’s farm. The house today includes 10 period rooms and three exhibit rooms.
About 30 Macculloch descendants from across the country helped mark the anniversary milestone, Fellows told MorristownGreen. The day began with a brunch at the Morris County Golf Club.
“It’s been fun — a whirlwind 24 hours,” said Jenny Harrison, who said she appreciated the opportunity to introduce her 15-year-old daughter Anna to some family history. “My grandfather was one of the three boys who last lived in the house as a family.”
Harrison arrived from Georgia to meet her daughter, a sophomore at Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Andover, Mass.
“It’s really interesting,” said Anna. “I didn’t know any of this existed.”
In the next room at the reception, direct descendant Evan Chapin Miller of Ardsley, N.Y., who turns 6 in November, sat entranced in his mother’s lap, listening to Sharlys Dugan play the celtic harp.
“It was just so moving to celebrate the history,” said Evan’s father, Tim Miller. “I’m a musician myself. That was especially moving [at the concert] just to hear some of the ancestral music.”
The hour-long concert featured instrumental and vocal arrangements of Scottish standards such as Annie Laurie, Loch Lommond and The Blue Bells of Scotland, as well as more modern fare in the traditional style, such as Highland Cathedral performed by the Rampant Lion Pipe Band and Calliope House performed by siblings Sharlys and Connor Dugan of Dugan’s Hooligans on harp and fiddle. Michaela Maloney and Haleigh Panetta of the McAngus School of Highland Dance also demonstrated traditional Scottish dance with The Highland Fling.
The concert venue was no accident. George Macculloch was a Presbyterian, but his wife Louisa was of English descent and convinced her husband of the worthiness of helping build an Episcopal church in Morristown, recounted Alice Cutler, museum trustee and former president.
The St. Peter’s congregation met in Macculloch Hall in its early years, and the family supported the building of the church at which their gravestones lie. Son-in-law Jacob Welsh Miller, a state and U.S. senator, served on the church’s vestry.
MORE ON MACCULLOCH HALL:
Video: Morristown celebrates 200 years of Macculloch lore
Press your kilt: Morristown’s Macculloch Hall is having a 200th birthday bash on Sunday
Podcast: Macculloch Hall ‘Hearth and Home’ exhibit peeks at Morristown life, circa 1810
