Kentuck Knob [PA]

Description

Kentuck Knob, completed in 1953, is one of the last private residences to be designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), internationally renowned for his organic architecture. Designed on a hexagonal module, Kentuck Knob is a small Usonian home. Usonian design, promoted by Wright, refers to design which is affordable for the common people. The site also boasts a collection of contemporary sculpture, including work by Claes Oldenburg (born 1829), best known for drastically altering the scale or texture of the objects he depicts.

The site offers tours.

Victoria Mansion [ME]

Description

Victoria Mansion, also known as the Morse-Libby House, is widely regarded as the greatest Italian villa style residence in America. It was designed by New Haven architect Henry Austin and constructed between 1858 and 1860. Gustave Herter, one of the United States' first professional interior designers, coordinated the plasterwork, furniture, lighting fixtures, and fabrics within the building. His firm designed and manufactured all the furniture used—with influences from the Italian Renaissance to French Neoclassicism. Other highlights include decorative painting by Giuseppe Guidicini; gasoliers; the first documented smoking room in a U.S. private residence; and an extensive collection of stained glass.

The mansion offers tours; interactive programs, which meet the requirements of the Maine Learning Results, for school groups; a teacher preparation packet with worksheets, slides, and readings; and special events, including lectures.

Historic Rosedale Plantation [NC]

Description

Rosedale, originally part of a 911 acre plantation, was built in 1815 by Archibald Frew, merchant, postmaster and tax collector. In the 1830s, a doctor occupied the residence. He oversaw both his practice and the plantation work, carried out by two slave families. Rosedale exemplifies Federal period architecture (1780–1830) and is noted for its faux grain woodwork and the original French wallpaper that survives in three rooms. On a broader scope, the plantation is motivated by the preservation, exhibition, interpretation, and preservation of the architecture, decorative arts, and lifestyle of the 19th–century Catawba River Valley region.

The plantation offers guided tours (both in modern and period dress), hands-on activities, role playing, and educational activities (with listed corresponding state
standards) specifically for field trips.

Yonkers Historical Society

Description

The Yonkers Historical Society maintains the historic Sherwood House (built circa 1740), sponsors a wide variety of special events, advocates for the preservation of historic landmarks and neighborhoods, and fosters a greater appreciation of the city’s heritage through its educational programs. Its library boasts photographs, books, maps, and documents that cover almost every aspect of our community’s history over the last four centuries. The Sherwood House, a tenant farmhouse, is one of the few existing pre-Revolutionary homesteads in New York state; and a well-preserved example of an Anglo-Dutch home. It contains period furnishings and artifacts.

The society offers a library, a quarterly journal (select articles available online), and a collection of early 20th–century postcards of Yonkers (available online). Tours guided by an interpreter in period dress are available at the Sherwood House.

Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park is a three-story, 26-room Victorian house museum that stands as a memorial to John and Annie Bidwell. John Bidwell was known throughout California and across the nation as an important pioneer, farmer, soldier, statesman, politician, and philanthropist. Annie Ellicott Kennedy Bidwell, the daughter of a socially prominent, high-ranking Washington official, was deeply religious, and committed to a number of moral and social causes. Annie was very active in the suffrage and prohibition movements.

The park offers a short film, exhibits, and tours.

Governor's Mansion State Historic Park [CA]

Description

California's executive mansion, popularly known as the Governor's Mansion, was built in 1877 for Albert and Clemenza Gallatin. Albert was a partner in the Sacramento hardware store of Huntington & Hopkins. The State of California purchased the house from Joseph and Louisa Steffens to use as a home for California's first families in 1903 for $32,500. Victorian architecture was somewhat out of style by then, but the house was suitably impressive, conveniently located, and comfortable. Today's guests see marble fireplaces from Italy, gold-framed mirrors from France, and exquisitely handcrafted hinges and doorknobs, all of which are reminders of the Gallatins and the Victorian era. Outside some of the Mansion's abundant vegetation includes flowers, shrubs, and trees dating back to 1877. When visitors look behind the grape-stake fence and see Governor Brown's swimming pool built in 1959, they are reminded that the Governor's Mansion State Historic Park is really a walk through time.

The park offers tours and occasional recreational and educational events.

Historical Society of Palm Beach County and Johnson Palm Beach County Museum [FL]

Description

The Historical Society of Palm Beach County promotes local history, in part through support of the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County Museum. Located in a historic 1916 courthouse, the museum presents artifacts that once belonged to Pre-Columbian inhabitants; Seminole Indians; early pioneers; the business and philanthropic community; educators; and influential leaders in communications, medicine, and politics.

The museum offers exhibits, a video display, and both self-guided and docent-guided tours. The society offers fourth-grade Florida history and preservation curricula, a seventh-grade county history and civics curriculum, several traveling trunks, docent-guided walking tours, lectures, an annual art contest with a historic theme, and a history institute for social studies and history teachers.

A.R. Bowman Memorial Museum [OR]

Description

The A.R. Bowman Memorial Museum presents a wide range of displays detailing Crook County history including the City of Prineville Railroad, the ups and downs of the timber industry, and a military exhibit. Along with these major exhibits the museum offers historically accurate depictions of pioneer life and local history. The stone building housing the museum was built as the Crook County Bank in 1910.

The museum offers physical exhibits, an online exhibit, and a research library.