Justin Smith Morrill Homestead [VT]

Description

The Justin Smith Morrill Homestead preserves the Greek Revival cottage of John Smith Morrill (1810-1898). During his life, Morrill worked as a blacksmith, merchant's clerk, Representative, and U.S. Senator. Unable to finish school himself, Morrill became the chief sponsor of the 1862 Land Grant Act. The act provided for a college in each state which would teach skills not previously available in the higher education system—practical science, agriculture, and engineering. These colleges also offered more traditional studies. Morrill's hobbies included architecture and landscape design.

The homestead offers period rooms, tours, gardens, and access to Morrill's library. Please call ahead to verify admission hours. Appointments are required for library access. The website offers suggested reading and a video virtual garden tour.

Spartansburg County Historical Association and Museums [SC]

Description

The Spartansburg County Historical Association seeks to preserve and share the history of Spartansburg County, South Carolina. To this end, the society operates three historical sites and a regional museum. The Seay House began as a Scots-Irish one-story log home, built before 1850. This residence is most like the dwelling of an average early inhabitant of the Spartansburg area. Interpretation focuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century women's lives. The circa 1795 Price House grounds also include a kitchen building and double-pen slave cabin. The home served as a residence and bed and breakfast. Interpretation focuses on the original owners, Thomas and Anne Price. The circa 1765 Walnut Grove Plantation includes a plantation home, Rocky Spring Academy, a forge, a meat house, a kitchen building, a well house, a barn, and the reconstructed office of the region's earliest physician to have received collegiate training. The site depicts area life prior to 1805. The Regional History Museum's permanent exhibits address an chronological overview of Spartansburg area developments, textiles, military history, and locally made furniture.

The Seay House offers period rooms, interpretive signage, and school tours. The Price House offers period rooms and guided tours. Walnut Grove Plantation offers guided tours of the home, kitchen, and Rocky Spring Academy; self-guided grounds tours; a nature trail; and the Moore family cemetery. The Regional History Museum offers student tours, curriculum-based programs for students, exhibits, traveling trunks, and summer camps. Reservations are required for school tours to the Seay House and for groups of 10 or more visiting the Price House and/or Walnut Grove Plantation. Visitors to the cemetery are asked to remain on the trail.

Historic Deerfield [MA]

Description

In historic Deerfield, visitors can step back into early America as they tour 11 house museums, exploring hundreds of years of history along an original, mile-long street. Two houses, the Stebbins House and Sheldon House, are available for self-guided tours all day during the regular season.

The site offers exhibits, tours, workshops, educational programs, research library access, and recreational and educational events.

Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site (Ft. William Henry) [ME]

Description

The Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site chronicles the history of one of northern New England's earliest settlements. Dating back to the 1620s, Pemaquid is located on an old Native American village, and contains Fort William Henry, which guarded the waters of mid-coast Maine.

The State Historic Site offers exhibits in the reconstructed Fort William Henry, and guided tours. The website offers a brief history of the site and basic visitor information.

Gunston Hall Plantation [VA]

Description

Visit the home of George Mason, the author of the Virginia Bill of Rights (the basis of the Constitution's Bill of Rights). Completed in 1759, Gunston Hall is a fine example of Virginia's colonial architecture in the Georgian style. The mansion's grounds and gardens were surveyed and designed by Mason himself and are available for visiting today.

The site welcomes field trips and offers school tours based on Virginia SOLs and on-site programs for all grades. Outreach programs are also available if a visit is impossible. Teacher resources and curriculum guides are available for purchase in the museum shop. Teacher workshops and lectures are also featured as well as an on-site research library.

Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society [CT]

Description

Built circa 1748, the Noah Webster House is the restored birthplace and childhood home of the lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843). Today, the museum building includes the historical house, library, archives, and a modern exhibition gallery.

The house and society offer exhibits, tours, reference library access, educational programs, and recreational and educational events.

Acadian Village [LA]

Description

The Acadian Village presents daily life and society within 19th-century Acadian Southern Louisiana. Seven of the 11 site structures are restored historic residences containing local period furnishings. Exhibit topics include Cajun music; spinning; weaving; medicine; and Senator Dudley J. LeBlanc (1894-1971), who strove to preserve Cajun culture. Replica period settings include a blacksmith shop, chapel, home, and schoolhouse; while the LeBlanc exhibit is located within the senator's birth home.

The village offers exhibits, period rooms, and self-guided tours. Reservations are appreciated for group visits. Picnics are encouraged. Tour brochures are available in English and French. The village is open January through October.

Dauphin County Historical Society and John Harris-Simon Cameron Mansion [PA]

Description

The Dauphin County Historical Society maintains the home of John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, PA. The site, the history of which dates back to the early 1700s, contains collections from the early colonial period through the Civil War era when Senator Simon Cameron owned the house.

The Dauphin County Historical Society offers three distinct educational programs for Pennsylvania elementary school students free of charge. All three programs adhere to Pennsylvania education standards and cover a variety of topics and time periods. All programs include a tour of the mansion and a hands-on activity, as well as a Dauphin County history lecture.

Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site [SC]

Description

The Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site preserves one of South Carolina's most important archaeological treasures, the remains of Colonial Dorchester. Dorchester was a trading post that flourished between 1697 through the Revolutionary War, when the town was abandoned. Some of the town remains standing and visible, such as the church bell tower and a long warf, but most of the town lies just out of sight underground.

The historic site offers guided tours, workshops, and field trip programs. The website offers brief historical and visitor information regarding the historic site.

Cragfont [TN]

Description

Cragfont was the home of General James Winchester, a protagonist of the American Revolution, a pioneer in the Middle Tennessee wilderness, a soldier against indigenous Americans, a brigadier general in the War of 1812, and co-founder of the City of Memphis. The construction of Cragfont was started in 1798 and finished in 1802. It was the finest mansion on the Tennessee frontier and typified the grandeur and style of the best architecture of the late Georgian period. Named Cragfont because it stood on a rocky bluff with a spring at its base, the house is furnished with Federal antiques, some of which are original to the Winchester family. The basement holds an authentic weaving room.

A second website for the site can be found here.

The house offers tours and occasional recreational and educational events.