F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum [AL]

Description

The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum presents the works and lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) and his wife, Zelda (1900-1948). The museum is located in the couple's last remaining residence, which they inhabited between 1931 and 1932. Fitzgerald is best known for his novel The Great Gatsby. The couple was considered by the press of their day to be a perfect embodiment of the Jazz Age.

The museum offers exhibits.

The Arlington Heights Historical Museum [IL]

Description

The Arlington Heights Historical Museum presents the history of Arlington Heights, Illinois. The complex includes the 1882 Victorian Frederick W. Müller home, a coach house, a 1906 soda factory, the 1908 Arts and Crafts Banta House, and a replica 1830s cabin. The Banta House displays dolls and dollhouses.

The museum offers exhibits, dioramas, period rooms, period carpentry and blacksmith shops, research library access, guided tours, self-guided tours, children's summer programs, seven educational programs for students, youth programs, a Junior Historian club, and Scout programs. Groups of 6 or more interested in a tour must make an appointment. Period rooms are located in the log cabin and Müller House. The library is located in the soda factory. The website offers children's activities.

Monterey State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Visitors to this park can step into the past on the "Monterey Walking Path of History" and view the site where Spanish explorers first landed in Monterey in 1602; see one of the nation's last remaining whalebone sidewalks; and walk the same streets that author Robert Louis Stevenson walked in 1879 as they explore this two-mile path and discover some of California's most historic homes, buildings, and gardens along the way. Monterey served as California's capital under Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. military rule. The U.S. flag was first officially raised in California here on July 7, 1846, bringing 600,000 square miles of land to the United States. Ten buildings, including the Custom House, the oldest government building in California, and several residences (now house museums with guided tours), are all part of the Path of History.

The park offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, occasional living history events, and occasional other educational and recreational events.

Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park [NY]

Description

The Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park preserves the 1920s estate of the Coe family. The grounds consist of 400 acres of gardens, trails, woodlands, and greenhouse displays. Coe Hall is a Tudor Revival residence, and is furnished in the style of the 1920s.

The site offers period rooms, gardens, self-guided tours, guided tours of the grounds and of Coe Hall, hiking trails, interpretive signs, exhibits, educational programs, and group tours. Coe Hall is open between April and September.

Burwell School Historic Site [NC]

Description

The Burwell School Historic Site presents the lives of the individuals who lived within and near Burwell School during the antebellum years and the Civil War. The site includes a circa 1821 residence; circa 1837 brick necessary; and an academy for girls, the Burwell School. The school functioned between 1837 and 1857. The site was also home to more than 30 slaves, including Elizabeth Hobbes Keckly (1818-1907), who would become a close friend of Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckly eventually wrote Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years as a Slave and Four Years in the White House.

The site offers 45-minute guided tours, self-guided garden tours, a fourth-grade curriculum-based program, outreach programs for schools, a Scout program, workshops about Keckly, research library access, and research assistance.

Clermont State Historic Site [NY]

Description

Clermont was inhabited by seven successive generations of the Livingston family from 1730 to 1962. Clermont's most distinguished resident was Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase and co-inventor of America's first practical steamboat. Set amidst historic gardens, the house commands a fine view of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains.

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

Pella Historical Society [IA]

Description

Pella Historical Society is dedicated to preserving the unique historical heritage of Pella, IA. Pella is known for its rich Dutch heritage. The society's main function is to operate the Pella Historical Village, a collection of historic house museums and the Vermeer historic Dutch windmill.

The society offers interpretive events, guided tours, special events, and hands-on workshops. The website offers visitor information, an events calendar, educational resources including lesson plans, and a history of the town.

Riversdale Historic House Museum [MD]

Description

Riversdale, a National Historic Landmark, is a restored, five-part, stucco-covered brick plantation home built between 1801 and 1807. Construction of this elegant manor house was begun by Henri Stier, a Flemish aristocrat, and was completed by his daughter Rosalie and her husband George Calvert, grandson of the fifth Lord Baltimore. The Federal style mansion has particularly fine interior decorative detail. Numerous nationally significant figures later lived there.

A second website, for the Riverside Historical Society, which supports maintenance and interpretation of the house, can be found here.

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

Bronx County Historical Society, Poe Cottage, and the Museum of Bronx History [NY]

Description

The Bronx County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of the Bronx, New York City. To this end, the society operates a research library, the county archives, the Poe Cottage, and a local history museum within the 1758 Valentine-Varian House. The 1812 Poe Cottage was Edgar Allan Poe's final home. He lived on site between 1846 and 1849. "Annabel Lee" was written during this time. Poe (1809-1849) is credited with creating the detective fiction genre, as well as being an early writer of American short stories. He is classified as a Romantic author; and his poetry, short stories, and novels lean toward the macabre. Famous works include "The Raven," "The Black Cat," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "Annabel Lee."

The society offers student tours and interactive activities in both historic homes, presentations for students, outreach programs for students, and neighborhood walking tours for students. The Poe Cottage offers period rooms, an introductory video, and guided tours. The Museum of Bronx History offers rotating exhibits. Both the archives and research library are open to the public by appointment. Payment of a fee is required for research assistance.

The Poe Cottage is undergoing renovations. Please check the website to verify that it will be open at the time which you wish to visit.

Old Dutch Parsonage and Wallace House [NJ]

Description

The parsonage was built in 1751 and first occupied by Reverend John Frelinghuysen, who came from Amsterdam to serve three congregations of the Dutch Reform church in the upper Raritan Valley. The second occupant of the Parsonage, the Reverend Jacob Hardenbergh, founded Queens College in 1766 while residing in the house. While living at the Dutch Parsonage, Hardenbergh sold 95 acres of land and a small farmhouse to John Wallace, a Philadelphia fabric importer and merchant. Between 1775 and 1776, Wallace purchased an additional 12 acres of land and built an eight-room Georgian style mansion adjoining part of the existing farmhouse. It was the largest house built in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War. Naming his estate "Hope Farm," Wallace intended the property to be his country seat and place of retirement.

The site offers tours.