The Holiday Open House at Petersburg’s Centre Hill Museum, Saturday Dec. 1 and Sunday Dec. 2, will feature a new exhibit, lecture, and concert. This year’s Open House coincides with the opening of the exhibit “Fashionably Dressed at Centre Hill Mansion: Attire from the 1820s to the Early 1900s”. The exhibit features men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing and fashion accessories from that era in period room settings. On Dec. 1 at 2pm, Colleen Callahan, Curator Emeritus of the Valentine Richmond History Center, will give a lecture entitled “Bustles, Bloomers and Naked Elbows: Women’s Fads and Fashion in the Nineteenth Century”. Then on Dec. 2 at 2pm, the Woodwind Trio from the Petersburg Symphony will perform an array of selections from their repertoire including seasonal music.

From Virginia is for Lovers:

Built in 1823 as the primary residence for the Bolling family, Centre Hill contains stately examples of Federal, Greek Revival and Colonial Revival architectural features as well as a wide array of furnishings and decorative arts dating from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Over the years, distinguished guests have included Presidents Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and William Howard Taft in 1909. Now a historic house museum, a permanent exhibition recounts the history of the house and its occupants through photographs, archival documents and artifacts.

Museum hours are 10am to 5pm. Admission is free; a portion of the programming is being sponsored by a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Centre Hill Museum is located at 1 Centre Hill Ave. in Petersburg. For more information call (804) 733-2401.