Robert Toombs House Historic Site [GA]

Description

Robert Toombs is notable for his service during the mid-1800s as a U.S. Congressman and Senator. He is also known for the creation of the Georgia state constitution, which was not changed until 1945. The home is a beautiful piece of Southern architecture, and today serves as a historic house museum.

The home offers tours, a variety of exhibits, a short video portraying Toombs, and special events including lectures and special exhibits. The website offers a brief biography of Toombs, an events calendar, and visitor information.

Will Rogers State Historic Park [CA]

Description

In the early 1930s, Will Rogers was the most popular and highest paid actor in Hollywood. From his start in vaudeville theater with a trick roping act, he rose to worldwide fame as a columnist, philosopher, radio personality, and movie star. During the 1920s, he bought land in Santa Monica, where he developed a ranch. Eventually, the Rogers's owned 186 acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in what is now known as Pacific Palisades. The ranch became the place where Will Rogers could relax with his family and friends, pursuing his favorite pastimes of riding and roping. At his untimely death in a plane crash in 1935, Will Rogers's ranch consisted of a 31-room ranch house, a stable, corrals, riding ring, roping arena, polo field, golf course, and hiking trails. When his widow, Betty, died in 1944, the ranch became a state park.

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

Charleston Museum and Historic Houses [SC]

Description

The Charleston Museum has the distinction of being America's first museum. The museum focuses on the history of Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry. In addition to the museum, the organization also maintains two historic houses, the 1803 Joseph Manigault House and the 1772 Heyward-Washington House.

The museum offers educational programs for elementary, middle, and high school students, as well as presentations tailored specifically to home-schooled children. The museum also offers a variety of exhibits, including traveling exhibits, and guided tours; the two historic house museums are also open for tours. The website offers online lesson plans, visitor information, an events calendar, information regarding the museum's educational programs, and histories of the two historic house museums.

Frazier Farmstead Museum [OR]

Description

The Farmstead is operated and maintained as a restored house and farm museum by the Milton-Freewater Area Historical Society. The Frazier home was built in 1892 and houses a collection of antique furnishings and other items from 19th-century daily life. The site also houses a 1918 barn, a carriage house, and several other buildings, all of which were an integral part of a turn-of-the-century working farm.

The museum offers visitor tours. The website offers general visitor information regarding the museum as well as a brief history of the location.

Mission Houses Museum [HI]

Description

Built between 1821 and 1841, the three mission houses that make up the Museum served as homes and workplaces for the first Christian missionaries to travel to the Hawaiian Islands. The Frame House (Ka Hale La'āu), was shipped around Cape Horn from Boston in 1820 and is the oldest wood house in Hawai'i. The Chamberlain House (Ka Hale Kamalani), built of coral blocks in 1831, was both a family home and storehouse for mission supplies. The third building, also of coral blocks, completed in 1841, today functions as the Printing Office (Ka Hale Pa'i). A working replica of the first printing press to be brought to Hawai'i is demonstrated there on a regular basis. In addition, the Museum grounds are the location of the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society (HMCS) library. Among the library's artifacts are the earliest books printed in the Hawaiian language. These books were used by missionaries and scholars alike in church and school.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, demonstrations, workshops, lectures, and other educational and recreational programs.

Nathan Hale Homestead [CT]

Description

One of the first of thousands of patriots who would die in the war for American independence, Hale is Connecticut's official State Hero. He was born and spent most of the short life he courageously sacrificed on this 400-acre farm. Hale, a Yale-educated schoolteacher, was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Continental Army in 1775. A year later he volunteered to go behind British lines on Long Island to gather military intelligence desperately needed by General George Washington. The British captured Hale and, when they discovered he was a spy, executed him. He was 21. In 1776, Hale's father rebuilt the Homestead, which has changed little since. Its furnishings include collections amassed by pioneer Connecticut antiquarian George Dudley Seymour and several Hale family possessions.

The homestead offers exhibits and tours.

Former Governors' Mansion State Historic Site [ND]

Description

The site consists of a large two-and-one-half story restored Victorian house and a carriage house. Constructed in 1884, it housed 21 chief executives between 1893 and 1960. Room exhibits feature the restoration process, architectural style changes, and furniture used by several governors.

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

Barrett House

Description

According to tradition, the 1800 Forest Hall was built as a wedding gift for Charles Barrett and his bride by his father. Its grand scale was encouraged by the bride's father, who promised to furnish the house in as lavish a manner as it could be built. The interiors are, indeed, elegantly furnished.

The house offers tours.

Slifer House Museum [PA]

Description

Eli Slifer is notable for serving in the position of Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the Civil War. It was during this period that the Slifer house was completed. Slifer lived in this home until his death in 1888. Today, the house and the surrounding grounds are owned by Albright Care Services, and offer visitors a view into the history of Pennsylvania as well as a variety of events, including tours and a summer camp.

The museum offers tours and occasional educational and recreational events.

Conrad Weiser Homestead [PA]

Description

The Conrad Weiser Homestead is a Pennsylvania state historic site which interprets the life of Conrad Weiser. Weiser was an 18th-century German immigrant who served as an Indian interpreter and who helped coordinate Pennsylvania's Indian policy. He played a major role in the history of colonial Pennsylvania. The Homestead includes period buildings and a new orientation exhibit, on a 26-acre Olmsted-designed landscaped park.

The site offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).