Staff photo / Bob Coupland
A Civil War-era hospital has been set up at Center Brook Manor, 8745 state Route 45, Bloomfield. One room is a surgery room lit by candles, another is a six-bed recovery room with a U.S. sanitary commission and apothecary as well as medicines, an embalming room and a funeral parlor. There is a sewing area where gowns for the wounded are made. There is also a room of Civil War artifacts.

Staff photo / Bob Coupland
Roger Peterson, a Bloomfield trustee, who owns Center Brook Manor with his family, said the historical program began Friday with a living history program with 20 volunteers and a tour done by a Civil War Hospital group that does similar programs at Gettysburg, Pa.

Roger Peterson, a township trustee whose family owns the Center Brook Manor, 8745 State Route 45, south of the township center, said five rooms in the home have been made into a Civil War-era hospital. He said school groups can stop in Saturday during the day and see the exhibit for a donation.

Special tours with a limit of 10 people per tour are being offered 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday at $13.50 per person. The live tours are every 30 to 40 minutes and require advanced reservations at www.centerbrookmanor.com/events. Peterson said tickets for the live tours can be purchased onsite, but purchasing tickets online is the only way to guarantee a time slot, he said.

The event began Friday with a living history program with 20 volunteers and a tour done by a Civil War Hospital group that does similar programs at Gettysburg, Pa.

“This is the first time we have had this here. It has been done in Gettysburg, where it is very popular,” Peterson said.

WHAT’S SHOWCASED

One room is a surgery room lit by candles, another is a six-bed recovery room with a U.S. sanitary commission and apothecary as well as medicines, an embalming room and a funeral parlor. There is a sewing area where gowns for the wounded are made.

There is also a room of Civil War artifacts.

“This is a Civil War hospital inside a house. This house has its own Civil War history, so it made perfect sense for this,” Peterson said.

He said the history group set up authentic items for viewing with mannequins used for surgeries.

“The entire first floor of the house is set up as a Civil War hospital. This is the first time we have had something like this of this scale,” Peterson said. “I was surprised at the sheer authenticity of all the props, which are period tools.”

He said seeing the real tools make the exhibit interesting.

“I learned that the soldiers were taking chloroform and whiskey and having their arms amputated,” Peterson said.

He said he wants to make the exhibit and living history program an annual event at the house.

“I feel very strongly about sharing history,” he said.

Center Brook Manor is also the site of the Underground Railroad program and tour led by the Trumbull County Historical Society.

Meghan Reed, Trumbull County Historical Society director, said she toured the Charles Brown House. Reed said the Underground Railroad is a significant part of Bloomfield’s history and state Route 45 was known as the “Road to Justice.”

Peterson said more rooms in the house are getting completed as well as a commercial septic system put in.

“People appreciate the house and being able to see it,” he said.

Proceeds raised from the paid tour event will go toward the construction of a building to house the George and Shirley Beck Civil War collection consisting of many authentic Civil war items.