Naper Settlement [IL]

Description

The Naper Settlement's living history museum tells the story of daily life in Naperville as it changed from a simple frontier outpost to a bustling turn-of-the-century community.

The settlement offers exhibits, tours, demonstrations, research library access, educational programs, and recreational and educational events (including living history events). The website offers information about the history of Naper settlement as well as current information for visitors.

First National Bank Museum

Description

The First National Bank is one of Columbia, Pennsylvania's oldest and most historic buildings. Founded in 1864, the First National Bank of Columbia moved into the building, which had been built in 1814 and had served as a residence and hotel up until that point. The building was converted into a museum in 1967. The museum is a faithful recreation of the bank in its original setting, and visitors can enjoy exploring the bank building as it looked in the late 19th century.

The site offers general historical information about the bank, as well as visitor information for the museum.

Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches, Melrose Plantation, and Kate Chopin House [LA]

Description

The Association for Preservation of Historic Natchitoches seeks to preserve areas of historic value in the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase Territory. The Association maintains the Melrose Plantation and the Kate Chopin House. The Melrose story begins with Marie Therese Coincoin, a slave born in 1742; she was eventually she sold to a Frenchmen, Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer. In time, Metoyer freed Marie Therese and 10 Franco-African children. Evidence points to Metoyer as the father of these children. Marie Therese and son Louis Metoyer received large grants of land including the present Melrose Plantation. This Creole-style home celebrates its most famous resident, Kate Chopin, and its original inhabitant, Alexis Cloutier. Built by slave labor between 1805 and 1809, the structure exemplifies the early 19th-century homes of the area.

The association offers occasional recreational and educational events; the plantation offers tours; the house offers exhibits and tours.

Woodland Opera House State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Built in 1885, the original Opera House burned down in the 1892 fire that destroyed much of downtown Woodland. It was rebuilt on the same site, using some of the remaining foundations and bricks from the walls, reopening in 1896. Today, the interior of the Opera House has been painstakingly restored to the grandeur it enjoyed at the turn if the century. Careful attention was paid to reproduction of the wallpaper friezes, paint colors, and carpeting. The main floor carpet was manufactured in England and shipped to the Opera House for installation. Comfortable main floor theater seating was built on the East Coast for installation and the historic pew-like benches in the balcony area were repaired or carefully replaced.

A second, individual website for the Opera House can be found here.

The park offers tours and year-round performances, productions, classes, and workshops.

Blaine County Historical Museum [ID]

Description

The Blaine County Historical Museum serves as a place for participants to explore the Wood River Valley's past; research family histories; and view stored vignettes of mines, schools, agricultural contributions, transportation expansion, famous literary personalities, period fashions, western attire, and political memorabilia. Each display contributes to the historical perspective of life as early inhabitants and pioneers experienced it.

The museum offers exhibits and research library access.

Barnes County Historical Society and Museum [ND]

Description

The Barnes County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Barnes County, ND, and the surrounding area. To this end, the society operates a museum of local history which contains relevant temporary exhibits. Collection highlights include the shoes of the "Largest Man in Dakota Territory," Christian Paetow, as well as a 1901 Oldsmobile.

The society offers exhibits.

Astor House Museum and Clear Creek History Park [CO]

Description

Visitors to the Astor House Museum and Clear Creek History Park can explore how the people of Golden, CO, settled a bustling town that served the developing West as a government center and mining supply town. They can tour an 1800s boarding house and homestead where early Colorado pioneers worked and played, see what life was like on the frontier, and hear stories of the people who called this place home. The Astor House was built in 1867 and stayed in continuous operation as a boarding and rooming house until 1971—over 100 years! It rented rooms and served hot meals to lawmakers, laborers, miners, students, and families, some of whom stayed for weeks or even months. Clear Creek History Park recreates the look and feel of a late 1800s mountain ranch complete with gardens, a working blacksmith shop, schoolhouse, and chicken coop (chickens included).

The sites offer tours, demonstrations, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).