Deutschheim State Historic Site [MO]

Description

The Pommer-Gentner house, built in 1840, is a sterling example of high-style German neoclassicism and is furnished to reflect the earlier settlement period of the 1830s and 1840s. Behind the house, visitors will tour a period garden and a small half-timbered barn containing an exhibit of 19th-century tools. The Strehly house, built in stages from 1842 to 1869, has a traditional German vernacular front. It once contained a full-service printing company that produced a German-language newspaper. About 1857, Carl Strehly built a winery next to the house that today displays one of a few remaining carved wine casks in the Midwest. Grapevines, planted by the Strehlys in the 1850s, can still be seen running the length of the backyard. Deutschheim's varied collections of German Americana are represented by galleries of changing artifacts and photographs.

The site offers tours, exhibits, occasional recreational and educational events.

First Missouri State Capitol State Historic Site

Description

Missouri's first legislators met in the buildings of the First Missouri State Capitol State Historic Site to undertake the task of reorganizing Missouri's territorial government into a progressive state system. From June 4, 1821, to Oct. 1, 1826, heated debates of state's rights and slavery filled the rooms of the temporary Capitol. The second floor of two adjoining Federal-style brick buildings was divided and used as Senate and House chambers, an office for the governor, and a small committee room. The first floor of the Peck brothers' building housed a general store and Ruluff Peck's family residence. Chauncy Shepard operated a carpenter shop on the first floor of the adjoining building. For a nominal fee, visitors can take a guided tour through the actual restored and furnished rooms where Missouri state government was created and first practiced. The restored Peck brothers' general store and residence have been furnished as they might have looked in the early 1800s. Admission is free to the historic site's interpretive center, which offers two floors of exhibits and an orientation show.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site [MO]

Description

A renowned painter, sculptor, lecturer, and writer, Thomas Hart Benton had a gift for interpreting everyday life. One of his most noted murals, "A Social History of the State of Missouri," can be viewed in the House Lounge of the state Capitol. Virtually untouched since his death in 1975, the two-and-a-half story, late Victorian-style house that Benton called home was constructed of native, quarried limestone and contains simple furnishings in neutral tones that contrast Benton's vibrant paintings. Several of Benton's paintings and sculptures can be viewed in the house. Benton converted half of the carriage house into his art studio, which remains as he left it, with coffee cans full of paintbrushes, numerous paints, and a stretched canvas waiting to be transformed into another of his masterpieces.

The site offers tours.

Claude Moore Colonial Farm [VA] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:28
Description

Visitors to this site can step back in time and experience life on a small farm in northern Virginia. Living history programs and demonstrations offer a glimpse of what life was like for a poor farm family, just before the Revolutionary War.

A second website for this site, maintained by the Friends of Claude Moore Colonial Farm, can be found here.

The site offers demonstrations, educational programs, workshops, and recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Piscataway Park, Accokeek Foundation, and National Colonial Farm [MD] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:28
Description

Piscataway Park is a scenic easement to preserve the view from Mount Vernon. There are many areas open to the public. Visitors can explore the National Colonial Farm, an 18th-century farm, maintained by the Accokeek Foundation, which depicts life for an ordinary tobacco planting family in Prince George's County in the 1770s.

A second website for the park, maintained by the Accokeek Foundation, can be found here.

The park and foundation offers workshops and occasional recreational and educational events; the farm offers demonstrations, workshops, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Boston African American National Historic Site [MA]

Description

Boston African American National Historic Site is comprised of the largest area of pre-Civil War black-owned structures in the U.S. It has roughly two dozen sites on the north face of Beacon Hill. These historic buildings were homes, businesses, schools, and churches of a thriving black community that, in the face of great opposition, fought the forces of slavery and inequality.

The site offers tours.

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park

Description

Visitors can walk through one of Vermont's most beautiful landscapes, under the shade of sugar maples and 400-year-old hemlocks, across covered bridges, and alongside rambling stone walls. Ranger-guided tours of the historic 1869 Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Mansion and gardens explore the history of conservation; the stewardship ethic of the Marsh, Billings, and Rockefeller families' and community-based conservation in a more modern context. In addition to original furnishings and personal items, the mansion displays works of art that include some of America's finest landscape paintings, highlighting the influence painting and photography had on the conservation movement.

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

Grand Portage National Monument [MN]

Description

For over 400 years Ojibwe families of Grand Portage have tapped maples every spring on a ridge located just off Lake Superior. During the summer, Ojibwe fishermen harvest in the same areas their forefathers have. Before the United States and Canada existed, the trading of furs, ideas, and genes between the Ojibwe and French and English fur traders flourished. From 1778 until 1802, welcomed by the Grand Portage Ojibwe, the North West Company located their headquarters and western supply depot here for business and a summer rendezvous. Today, Grand Portage National Monument and Indian Reservation form a bridge between people, time and culture.

The site offers short films; tours; exhibits; educational programs; demonstrations; and educational and recreational events, including living history events.

Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee National Memorial [VA]

Description

Arlington House was the home of Robert E. Lee and his family for 30 years and is uniquely associated with the Washington and Custis families. George Washington Parke Custis built the house to be his home and a memorial to George Washington, his step-grandfather. It is now preserved as a memorial to General Lee, who gained the respect of Americans in both the North and the South.

The house offers exhibits, tours, and educational programs.