Francis X. Pendl Nassau County Firefighters Museum and Education Center [NY]

Description

The Francis X. Pendl Nassau County Firefighters Museum and Education Center presents the history of firefighting in Nassau County, New York communities. Collections include historic and modern apparatus and uniforms. An interactive exhibit focuses on fire safety.

The museum offers traditional and interactive exhibits, interactive fire safety and prevention presentations for students, and senior programs.

Museum of Colquitt County History [GA]

Description

The Museum of Colquitt County History presents the history of Colquitt County, Georgia. Exhibit topics and displays include Native American artifacts, face jugs, a small scale Chickee dwelling, a Confederate memorial and artifacts, vernacular and home artifacts, 20th-century life, tobacco, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and education.

The museum offers exhibits and a high school self study course on the Confederacy. Tours are available outside of normal museum hours with advance notice.

Buttolph-Williams House [CT]

Description

With its diamond-paned casement windows, clapboards weathered nearly black, and hewn overhangs, the Buttolph-Williams House harks back to the Puritan pioneering of New England during the 1600s. Although actually built around 1711, the house reflects the continuing popularity of traditional architecture. As a result it is considered the most faithful restoration of a 17th-century-style Connecticut Valley house. An array of colonial-era furnishings is on display. Highlights include a room designed and decorated by Katherine Prentiss Murphy, one of the 20th century's most renowned antiques collectors, and a kitchen with an enormous open hearth and an assortment of Colonial-era cooking implements.

The house offers exhibits and tours.

Olompali State Historic Park [CA]

Description

The park overlooks the Petaluma River and San Pablo Bay from the east-facing slopes of 1,558-foot Mount Burdell. The name "olompali" comes from the Miwok language and may be translated as "southern village" or "southern people." The Coast Miwok inhabited at least one site within the area of the present-day park continuously from as early as 6,000 BC until the early 1850s. Olompali contains "kitchen rock," a large boulder used as a mortar in which early people ground acorns and seeds into a fine flour for food preparation. Many women would gather near such grinding rocks to prepare food and socialize.

The park offers exhibits and tours.

Hearst San Simeon State Historic Monument and Castle [CA]

Description

La Cuesta Encantada, "The Enchanted Hill" high above the ocean at San Simeon, was the creation of two extraordinary individuals, William Randolph Hearst and architect Julia Morgan. Their collaboration, which began in 1919 and continued for nearly 30 years, transformed an informal hilltop campsite into the world-famous Hearst Castle—a 115-room main house plus guesthouses, pools, and eight acres of cultivated gardens. The main house itself, "La Casa Grande," is a grand setting for Hearst's collection of European antiques and art pieces. It was also a most fitting site for hosting the many influential guests who stayed at Hearst's San Simeon ranch. Guests included President Calvin Coolidge, Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Lindbergh, Charlie Chaplin, and a diverse array of luminaries from show business and publishing industries.

The site offers exhibits, tours, a 40-min. film, living history presentations, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park [NJ]

Description

With its 19th-century bridges, bridgetender houses, past and present locks, cobblestone spillways, and hand-built stone-arched culverts, the canal is a tremendous attraction for history lovers. The upper reach of the feeder canal wanders through New Jersey towns along the Delaware River such as Stockton and Lambertville. The main canal passes the Port Mercer canal house, through the village of Griggstown to Blackwells Mills, ending up in New Brunswick. Most of the old canal system remains intact today and is a reminder of the days when the delivery of freight depended upon a team of mules or steam tugboats. Nearly 36 miles of the main canal and 22 miles of the feeder canal still exist, with many historic structures along the canal.

A second website for the park can be found here.

The park offers tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Northern Lincoln County Historical Museum [OR]

Description

The Northern Lincoln County Historical Museum presents the history of Northern Lincoln County, Oregon. Exhibit topics include a historic overview covering prehistory through the 1920s, tourism between the 1920s and 1965, and individual towns. Collection highlights include Japanese fishing floats. Exhibits incorporate quotes from oral histories.

The museum offers exhibits, a children's corner, tours, and research library access. Tours are available on request. Library access is by appointment only.