The Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is preserving, protecting, and enhancing the special historic character of Salisbury and Rowan County through education, neighborhood revitalization, advocacy, and the preservation of historic landmarks. It also maintains and operates the Josephus W. Hall House, the Salisbury Station and the Grimes Mill. The 1820 Hall House contains the silver, china, and furniture of the Hall family, which owned the house beginning in 1859; the 1908 Salisbury Station has been restored and is tourable by appointment; and the 1896 Victorian roller mill, Grimes Mill, contains five floors of early mill machinery, and is tourable by appointment.

The foundation offers tours and occasional recreational and educational programs; the historic sites offer tours.

Glimpses into two of the U.S.'s wars can be found in one historic site within the city of Kinston. Here visitors can explore the celebrated life of Richard Caswell, the first governor of the independent state of North Carolina. They can also see up close the remnants of the ironclad gunboat CSS Neuse, a product of the Confederate Navy's ill-fated attempt to regain control of the lower Neuse River and retake the city of New Bern during the Civil War.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

The grounds of this site include several historic structures, including the Tryon Palace, the George W. Dixon House, the Stanly House, the Robert Hay House, and the New Bern Academy. Tryon Palace was originally built between 1767 and 1770, as the first permanent capitol of the Colony of North Carolina and a home for the Royal Governor and his family. Josiah Martin, the second royal governor to live in the Palace, fled in May of 1775 at the beginning of the American Revolution. Patriots made the Palace their capitol and the first sessions of the General Assembly met there to begin designing a free and independent state. Four state governors used the Palace: Richard Caswell, Abner Nash, Alexander Martin, and Richard Dobbs Spaight. The George W. Dixon House was built in the early 1830s for George W. Dixon, a merchant tailor and one-time mayor of the city of New Bern. The Stanly House was built in the early 1780s for John Wright Stanly, a prominent New Bern citizen. John Hawks, the architect who designed Tryon Palace, may have designed the Stanly House as well. Built of hand-hewn longleaf pine, the Stanly House remains one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in the South. The Robert Hay House, built in the first decade of the 19th century, is modest by comparison to other homes on the Palace complex. Robert Hay, a Scottish immigrant and wagon maker, bought this Federal-style wood frame townhouse in 1816, the same year he married Nancy Carney, and resided there until his death in 1850, at the age of 96. Today, it functions as a "living history" museum. Visitors get a firsthand feel for life in 1835 by talking with character interpreters who portray Hay household members and neighbors, and by hands-on experiences with the reproduction furnishings of this "Please Touch" museum. The New Bern Academy was the first school in North Carolina to be established by law; the legislative assembly incorporated it in 1766. Fire destroyed the original building in 1795. The present building was constructed between 1806 and 1809, and served as a school until 1971, making it one of the oldest continuously used school buildings in America. Today, it serves as a museum of local history.

The sites offer a short video, exhibits, tours, demonstrations, performances, and educational and recreational events (including living history events).

Old Salem includes four museums—the Historic Town of Salem, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), the Old Salem Children's Museum, and the Old Salem Toy Museum— which engage visitors in an educational historical experience about those who lived and worked in the early South.

The museums offer exhibits, tours, demonstrations, and other recreational and educational events (including living history events).

The Museum collects and preserve artifacts, photographs, and documents relevant to Orange County and shares the heritage of Hillsborough and Orange County with the public. Permanent exhibits explore the development and history of Hillsborough in a chronological fashion, beginning with early Native American settlements, progressing through the 1950s. Special exhibits explore a variety of topics relevant to Orange County history.

The museum offers exhibits and educational and recreational programs.

Established in 1955, the New Bern Firemen's Museum seeks to preserve the history of firefighting in New Bern. The exhibits are original pieces of equipment from the city's past. New Bern was the first city in North Carolina to charter a fire company, and one of the first in the nation; and the city's firefighters hold many world records.

The museum offers exhibits.

The Charlotte Museum of History and Hezekiah Alexander Homesite comprise multiple venues on an eight-acre wooded campus in east Charlotte. The oldest structure, and the reason for the museum's location, is the Hezekiah Alexander Homesite, a 5,000-square-foot rock house. The Hezekiah Alexander House is the oldest surviving house in Mecklenburg County. Listed on the National Register for Historic Places, it was built circa 1774 and still stands on its original site. The house is accompanied by a reproduction log kitchen and reconstructed two-story springhouse. The Museum itself occupies a 36,000-square-foot building and displays three galleries' worth of displays taking the Charlotte-Mecklenburg story from the 18th to the 20th century.

The museum and site offer exhibits, guided and self-guided tours for school groups, museum-on-the-go traveling trunks, programs for homeschoolers, and other educational and recreational events (including living history events).

The Association's Museum displays artifacts from local history. The current exhibit includes artifacts from the now-closed silk mill in Pittsboro, including a sample book of labels from famous manufacturers that were made at Chatham Mills.

The society offers lectures and occasional recreational and educational events; the museum offers exhibits and research library access.

The North Carolina Museum of History is an exciting place to explore the state’s rich heritage and learn about its people. The museum offers exhibits, self-guided and spotlight tours for school groups, summer camps, the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association for students, history-in-a-box kits for loan, virtual field trips, professional development for educators, and other educational events and programs.

Guided tour of the Kenan family ancestral home, a restored Southern plantation of the 1800s. Eleven rooms, 12 dependencies including garden shop, wine cellar, carriage house, servants quarters, chicken house, smokehouse, overseer's cottage, woodshed, tool house, wash shed and necessary house(bathhouse and privy). Also, Visitor's Center Exhibit Hall, 13-minute video and gift shop. Herb garden and recently added rose garden. There is an admission charge.