California State Railroad Museum

Description

The California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento is a tribute to the role of the "iron horse" in connecting California to the rest of the nation. The museum features 21 restored locomotives and cars, some dating back to 1862. There is a full-scale diorama of an 1860s construction site high in the Sierra Nevada as well as a bridge elevated 24 feet above the museum floor.

The museum offers exhibits, train rides, a short film, tours, research library access, educational programs, and recreational and educational events.

Dothan Landmarks Foundation [AL]

Description

The Landmark Park in Dothan, Alabama is an outdoor classroom that is designed to educate children about local history and nature. The site has a turn-of-the-century school house and farmstead, a general store, and an Interpretative Center. "Learning Labs" that focus on nature are also available in addition to the history labs.

The site offers history education programs for school groups that include a turn-of-the-century school lesson in the schoolhouse, visit the blacksmith shop and general store, and the Wiregrass farmstead where they will participate in 1900's farm chores and recreation.

Royal Arts Foundation- Belcourt Castle [RI]

Description

The Belcourt Castle was the home of built in 1894 by the famous American architect Richard Morris Hunt. It was designed as Louis XIII style hunting lodge to be a summer cottage during the Gilded Age. The mansion contains historical furnishings and memorabilia.

The Castle offers guided group tours for students that include showcase the Tinney family's (the current owners) antiques and the variety of architectural styles of the home. The tour covers the history of the Gilded Age and the home's illustrious residents O.H.P. Belmont, a representative of the Rothschild Banking empire and Congressman, and his wife Alva Vanderbilt, the former wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt.

Walton House Museum [OH]

Description

The Walton House Museum presents the daily life of people in the Dayton, OH area between circa 1850 and the early 20th century. The 1838 Walton House holds period rooms displaying domestic life between 1850 and the early 1900s, in addition to fan, buttonhook, and patterned glass exhibits. The grounds contain a flower and perennial garden and a medicine garden. The latter consists of medicinal herbs ordered by a doctor in 1844. Gardens which produced herbs for local doctors were common between 1820 and 1850.

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, gardens, and guided tours for students.

Dorsey Chapel Historic Site [MD]

Description

This small frame meetinghouse-style church is distinguished by its steeply pitched gable roof and late Victorian ornamental treatment of its principal gable front. The upper gable has alternating courses of sawtooth and rectangular shingles, a quatrefoil bulls-eye ornament, and a turned wooden finial at the ridge. Each of the chapel's side walls is lighted by three gothic-arch windows that have delicate tracery in the upper sashes.

The church offers tours.

Salmon Ruins and Heritage Park [NM]

Description

The Salmon Ruins and Heritage Park seeks to preserve and share the history and prehistoric record of the Four Corners. Particular emphasis is given to San Juan County, New Mexico. The park operates a research library with more than 5,000 volumes pertaining to Southwest history and archaeology. Sights include an 11th-century Chacoan greathouse; a 19th-century homestead; and a replica tipi, pithouse, hogan, and sweatlodge.

The site offers exhibits, guided group tours of the Salmon Ruins, school tours, outreach virtual tour presentations, and research library access. Reservations are recommended for group and school tours.

Trolley Museum of New York

Description

The Trolley Museum of New York presents the history of rail transportation and the effect thereof on the Hudson River Valley. Collections include 21 subway, rapid transit, and trolley cars from throughout the United States and Europe. These cars date from between 1897 and 1952. The museum is located on the foundations of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad Yard's engine house.

The museum offers exhibits, a film, the opportunity to view restoration work in progress, a one and a half-mile trolley ride, and picnic sites along the trolley route.

Margaret Mitchell House and Museum [GA]

Description

The Margaret Mitchell House was the adult home of American author Margaret Mitchell and the place where she wrote Gone with the Wind. The site also houses the Literary Center, which honors Mitchell's legacy through writing education programs.

The Museum offers exhibits, guided tours (with group tours available by arrangement) writing classes, summer camps, lectures, and other recreational and educational events.

Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum [CA]

Description

The Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum is located within an 1889 Queen Anne Victorian residence. The site was once home to Alvin and Willella Howe, both physicians. Graduating in 1886, Willella Howe was one of Orange County, California's earliest female doctors. After Alvin Howe was accused of performing an abortion, he left the area. Willella divorced him and married a local rancher, Edson Waffle. The house has been restored to a circa 1890s appearance.

The house offers period rooms.