NEW MACHINES ADDED TO SINGER CASTLE COLLECTIONThree additional Singer Sewing Machines have been added to the Singer Castle collection this year. Myron Sierson (pictured above), summer resident of Millens Bay, recently visited Singer Castle for a tour and determined that the castle would be the perfect place for the antique sewing machines that his grandmother and mother had used. Mr. Sierson’s grandmother Bertha Cusworth and then his mother Margaret Cusworth Sierson used an 1894 treadle machine with cabinet until the early 1970s. Mr. Sierson recalls his mother using the machine to sew his clothing and also sewing canvas flaps for the extension on the family’s tent used on camping trips to Cedar Island and Burnham Point State Parks. He remembers staying in that tent when hurricanes Connie and Diane hit the 1000 Islands region in 1956 and 1957. The Sierson’s tent weathered both hurricanes and remained standing without out one tear. The 1894 machine will be the oldest in the castle collection and is of particular interest to castle staff because it was manufactured in Elizabeth, NJ during Frederick Bourne’s tenure as the fifth president of the Singer Company. Mr. Sierson also donated a 1925 sewing machine with cabinet to the castle. The machine is still in perfect working condition. Earlier in the 2009 season, an Albany resident anonymously donated a 1910 machine to the castle. This 99-year old machine, manufactured in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is also in perfect working condition. The three new acquisitions will be placed on display making a total of eleven Singer Sewing Machines on display throughout the castle. Castle guests enjoy seeing the machines that remind them of those that their mothers, grandmothers and they themselves used or are still using in their homes.
Source: Direct from Dark Island.
