Nantucket Historical Association, Whaling Museum, and Historic Sites [MA]

Description

The Association operates several museums and historic sites, including the Whaling Museum, Hadwen House, Oldest House, Old Mill, Old Gaol, Quaker Meeting House, and the Hose-cart House. The Museum displays exhibits tracing the history of the New England whaling industry. The Hadwen House is a Greek Revival mansion built in 1845 by whaling merchant and silver retailer William Hadwen. Also called the Jethro Coffin House, the Oldest House is the oldest residence on Nantucket. Built as a wedding gift in 1686 for Jethro Coffin and Mary Gardner, it is the sole surviving structure from the island's original 17th-century English settlement. The Old Mill, built in 1746 by Nathan Wilbur, a Nantucket sailor who had spent time in Holland, is the oldest functioning mill in the country. The Old Gaol was opened in 1806; the wooden structure represents colonial architecture with exceptional reinforcements. The Quaker (Friends) Meeting House was erected in 1838 and originally served as a Friends School for the Wilburite Sect. The Fire Hose-cart House is the last remaining 19th-century firehouse on the island, dating from 1886.

The association offers tours, lectures, classes, research library access, and recreational and educational events; the Museum offers exhibits; the Hadwen House offers tours; the Oldest House offers tours; the Old Mill offers tours and demonstrations; the Old Gaol is open to the public; the Quaker Meeting House is open to the public and offers lectures; the Hose-cart House is open to the public.

Arlington Historical Society, Museum, and Jason Russell House [Massachusetts]

Description

The Jason Russell House was the site of the bloodiest fighting during the first day of the Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775. Today it and the adjoining Smith Museum hold collections of the Society. The Society, with offices in the Smith Museum, hosts a yearly lecture series as well as offering individual and group tours of the Jason Russell House. Through its education and outreach program, the Arlington Historical Society welcomes school classes and scout groups to explore life in colonial America.

The society offers lectures, research library access, and occasional recreational and educational programs; the house offers tours; and the museum offers tours and exhibits.

Hancock House [NJ]

Description

Built in 1734, the Hancock House is an important tangible link to understanding the history of Salem County and the nation’s struggle for independence. It was the home of a prominent Salem County family and is an excellent example of English Quaker patterned end wall brick houses associated with the lower Delaware Valley and southwestern New Jersey. It was also the scene of a British-led massacre during the Revolutionary War.

The house offers tours, workshops, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park [CA] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:27
Description

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park presents the opportunity to experience the history of early San Diego by providing a connection to the past. Visitors can learn about life in the Mexican and early American periods of 1821 to 1872, as converging cultures transformed San Diego from a Mexican pueblo to an American settlement. The core of restored original historic buildings from the interpretive period are complemented by reconstructed sites, along with early 20th-century buildings designed in the same mode. The Historic Plaza remains a gathering place for community events and historic activity. Five original adobe buildings are part of the historic park, which includes museums, unique retail shops, and several restaurants. La Casa de Estudillo is a mansion built around a garden courtyard. La Casa de Machado y Stewart is full of artifacts that reflect ordinary life of the period. Some of the other historic buildings include the Mason Street School (California's first public schoolhouse), La Casa de Machado y Silvas, the San Diego Union Printing Office (site of the city's oldest surviving newspaper office), and the first brick courthouse. The Seeley Stables Museum, with newly rehabilitated exhibits on overland transportation, houses one of the finest wagon and carriage collections. Visitors can experience a working blacksmith shop, enjoy music, see or touch the park's burros, and engage in activities that represent early San Diego.

The park offers exhibits, tours, living history events and programs, and other recreational and educational events.

Historic Miller-Cory House

Description

The Miller-Cory House is a story-and-a-half clapboard farmhouse with shingled roof, brace and beam construction, and nogging-filled walls typical of an average New Jersey homestead of the mid-18th century. It was begun in 1740, at the time Samuel Miller married his wife Sabra. Three sections were completed before Samuel Miller's death in 1782. The property came into the possession of Joseph Cory in 1784, and remained in the Cory family until 1921. Today, the Miller-Cory House is a nationally recognized living museum. It has been certified as an historic site and has been entered on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places. It is the focus of the Miller-Cory House museum to effectively create the atmosphere of an 18th-century farm in the midst of suburban, metropolitan New Jersey. On Sundays, costumed docents describe 18th-century life as they guide guests through the house. Visitors are introduced to a variety of colonial skills as trained artisans recreate the crafts and tasks of the 18th- and early 19th-century farm family.

The site offers tours, living history demonstrations, and educational and recreational programs.

Tippecanoe County Historical Association and Historical Sites

Description

The Association operates several historical sites in the county. The Tippecanoe County Historical Museum is housed in the Gothic Revival home built by Moses Fowler in 1851–1852; Fort Ouiatenon recreates an early French trading post blockhouse (1717–1791); and the Tippecanoe Battlefield memorializes the 1812 battle between Indiana Territories and Shawnee forces.

The society offers research library access, occasional living history events, and educational and recreational programs; the museums offers exhibits; the fort offers occasional living history events, exhibits, and tours; the battlefield offers exhibits and tours.

Museums of Old York [ME]

Description

The Old York Historical Society, as the Museums of Old York, was founded more than 100 years ago to preserve the history and artifacts of York, Maine. Originally referred to as Gorgeana, York is one of New England's earliest colonial settlements. It also has the distinction of being the nation's first chartered city (1641) and first incorporated city (1642). Offering 37 period room settings and several galleries housed throughout nine historic museum buildings, the Museums of Old York showcases a wealth of early New England art, architecture, and decorative arts. The exhibits focus on the stories of southern Maine's men, women, and children and the world they created and lived in from the earliest settlement in the 1600s to the present day. Historic structures include the 1834 Remick Barn, the 1750 Jefferds' Tavern, the 1745 Old Schoolhouse, the 1742 Emerson-Wilcox House, the 1719 Old Gaol, the 1747 Ramsdell House, the 1740s John Hancock Wharf, the 1867 George Marshall Store, and the 1730 Elizabeth Perkins House.

The museums offer exhibits, tours, living history demonstrations, classes, and other educational and recreational events.

Washington Crossing Historic Park [PA]

Description

The Park memorializes the historic crossing of the Delaware by George Washington and his troops during the American Revolution, while preserving and presenting a number of historic structures, including the 18th-century McConkey's Ferry Inn, the 18th-century Thompson-Neely House, and a variety of early-19th-century homes and structures.

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

Amish Country Homestead

Description

The Homestead is the home of the fictional Old Order Amish family of Daniel and Lizzie Fisher. Inside the Homestead, visitors learn of Amish traditions and practices, including Sunday church services held in the home. They tour the nine rooms on the first and second floors and learn up close how the Fisher family lives from day to day.

The homestead offers the "experiential theater" film Jacob's Choice and tours.