Stratford Hall

Description

Stratford Hall, home of the Lee family and birthplace of Robert E. Lee, was built by Thomas Lee in the late 1730s. Today, it is furnished with an outstanding collection of predominantly 18th-century American and English decorative arts.

The site offers exhibits, tours, educational program, workshops, research library access, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic Park [FL]

Description

Visitors to this Florida homestead can walk back in time to 1930s farm life. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lived and worked in the tiny community of Cross Creek. Her cracker-style home and farm, where she lived for 25 years and wrote her Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Yearling, has been restored and is preserved as it was when she lived here.

A second website for the site, maintained by the Friends of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm, can be found here.

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

Wilder Ranch State Park [CA]

Description

The park has 34 miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian rails winding through coastal terraces and valleys. Several restored buildings once belonging to the Wilder family are preserved. The park has tours and living history demonstrations to help visitors explore the history of early ranchers and farmers along the Central Coast. The site was originally the main rancho supplying Santa Cruz Mission. It later became a successful and innovative dairy ranch. Surrounding grounds include Victorian homes, gardens, and historic adobe.

The park offers tours; exhibits; demonstrations; and occasional recreational and educational events, including living history events.

Watson Farm

Description

Before European settlement, Native Americans planted their crops of corn and beans on Conanicut Island overlooking Narragansett Bay. In 1789, Job Watson purchased a piece of this rich farmland, and for the next two centuries, five successive generations of the Watson family cultivated the land, changing their crops and practices as needed to adapt to the evolving market. Today, the property is still a working family farm. The farmers raise cattle and sheep for beef, lamb, and wool markets; grow acres of grass for winter hay supplies; make compost for fertilizer; and cultivate a large vegetable garden. The 1796 house, still used as the farmers' residence, is not open to the public. Visitors are welcome to explore the farmland on their own, following a self-guided walking tour. Educational programs and group tours are available by appointment.

The farm offers tours and educational programs.

Double Trouble State Park and Historic Village [NJ]

Description

Originally a cranberry farm and packing plant, the former company town called Double Trouble is a window into past and current industries in the Pinelands. The Double Trouble Company was formed to sell timber, millwork products, and cranberries. A succession of sawmills has been on site since the mid-1700s. The village consists of cranberry bogs and 14 original historic structures dating from the late 19th century through the early 20th century including a general store, a schoolhouse and cottages.

The site offers tours.

Casey Farm

Description

This mid-18th-century homestead overlooking Narragansett Bay was the center of a plantation that produced food for local and foreign markets. Located near Newport, Casey Farm had access to material goods imported from England, enabling its early owners to live in a fashionable manner. Today, resident farm managers raise organically grown vegetables, herbs, and flowers for subscribing households in a Community Supported Agriculture program. The guided tour includes the farmyard and cemetery, where six generations of Caseys are buried.

The farm offers tours and educational and recreational programs.

Newport Restoration Foundation: Rough Point, Whitehorne House, and Prescott Farm [RI]

Description

The Foundation maintains and operates historical sites throughout Newport, including Rough Point, the Whitehorne House, and Prescott Farm. Frederick W. Vanderbilt built the English Manorial house Rough Point in 1889 on a dramatic, windswept promontory on Newport's Cliff Walk, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Whitehorne House, housed in a Federal period mansion, features some of the best examples of Newport and Rhode Island furniture from the late 18th century. Prescott Farm offers the visitor a glimpse of early New England buildings and landscape. The farm buildings and land trace their origins to the early 18th century.

The foundation offers tours; Rough Point offers exhibits and tours; the Whitehorne House offers tours; Prescott Farm offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Horne Creek Farm [NC]

Description

Once the Hauser family farm, Horne Creek enables visitors to experience farm life in North Carolina's northwestern Piedmont circa 1900. The site features the family's original farm house, a tobacco curing barn, a corn crib, adjacent fields under cultivation, and even a heritage apple orchard. Through programs ranging from old-fashioned ice cream socials to an annual corn shucking frolic, Horne Creek Living Historical Farm provides a unique opportunity to learn about the rural past.

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

Rocky Mount Living History Museum [TN]

Description

Rocky Mount is a large log house built by William Cobb around 1772. Cobb was one of the first permanent settlers of the western frontier that became the State of Tennessee in 1796. His home became the temporary capitol of the Southwest Territory during Governor William Blount's residence with the Cobb family between 1790 and 1792. Today, visitors step back into the year 1791 and gain an appreciation for the daily lifestyle of a frontier family. First-person costumed interpreters invite guests into the restored house and dependencies as guests of the Cobb family. Visitors discover members of the Cobb family, who perform daily chores in the kitchen, barn, weaving cabin, and gardens. As the seasons change, visitors encounter work in the field crops area and can view farm animals.

A second website for the museum can be found here.

The museum offers tours, exhibits, demonstrations, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Eolia and Harkness Memorial State Park [CT]

Description

Visitors to the site can enjoy the panoramic views of Long Island Sound from Eolia, the elegant summer mansion of the Harkness family set on over 230 seaside acres of sweeping lawns, with stately trees and spectacular gardens. Named Eolia for the island home of the Greek god of winds, the mansion was built in 1906 and purchased by Edward and Mary Harkness in 1907. The over 200 acres were a working farm and the mansion served as the Harkness's summer home.

The site offers tours.