Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Main and School Houses at the Howard County Living Farm Heritage Museum

The Howard County Living Farm Heritage Museum has several buildings on the property. Many of them are just sheds. A handful are little museums in and of themselves.

Right by the road is a large home that looks like it's in use. It is, in fact, the first bit of the museum, with several display rooms.

Howard County Living Farm Heritage Museum

A sparsely decorated living room

The dining room had a fun, low-tech checkers set on the table. We were tempted to play but were nervous that we'd get in trouble.

Dining room

Checkers with stones (good luck stacking two for a king!)

The kitchen looked like it was ready to be used, but still old-fashioned enough to put off those inexperienced with older appliances!

Kitchen (cool phone on the wall!)

The back of the house has a double-decker porch. I would love to have such a deck, in the front or in the back!

Back of the house

Side view of the house

We visited was the One Room Schoolhouse, an example of education from a hundred year ago.

Our daughter on her way to school

A brouchure explains the typical day when the school was open from 1885 to 1946. Before the start of school, the teacher swept the floor. In winter, the teacher came in an hour early to start the pot belly stove. The academic day started with a Bible reading, opening prayer, hymn, or the Pledge of Allegiance. The teacher had to cover penmanship, spelling, reading, geography, arithmetic, science, and languages. The children did have lunch and recess. They went home with homework to be turned in the next day.

The schoolhouse has all the classics--chalk boards, books, and 3D viewers.

Writing on the slate

She snuck some into school!

Bookshelf with globe

Old-fashioned and new-fashioned 3D viewers

The room also has some interesting toys, including a miniature cast-iron stove.

Playing cooking

One of the displays has the original Seal of Maryland. It's based on the Calvert Family, whose coat of arms inspired the Maryland State flag.

Great Seal of Maryland

Another display talks about the National Road, a route from east to west that used to follow right in front of the Museum. A fun puzzle was using refrigerator magnets to put the six states through which the road went in proper order.

National Road info

My daughter snuck out back to enjoy her bag of chips!

A child's size bench

In the next post, we'll see the McCracken House, an example of housing without electricity.

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