The Landis Valley Museum is a living history museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that preserves the life and two-hundred-year traditions of a German rural community. From Colonial times to the mid-twentieth century, the inhabitants had a distinct folk culture distinguished by decorative art and innovative farming. The museum was created in 1925 when the Landis family opened its residence to share its collection of seventy-five thousand artifacts illustrating the rich history of its heritage. Today, the German farm culture is alive here, in dozens of historic buildings on one-hundred-acres. Structures include a nineteenth-century hotel, log homes, barns and stables, a schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, firehouse, bank, and smokehouse.
Staff dressed in period-costume provide continual demonstrations in skills such as blacksmithing, wooden tool-making, farming with oxen and plowshares, tinsmith techniques, and clock-making. Women illustrate weaving, canning fruits and vegetables, preserving meat, and open-hearth cooking. The working farm is home to many historical breeds of animals. The Heirloom Seed Project & Farm Program focuses on preserving seeds from heirloom varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. Visitors may tour the various seed beds, purchase plants, and buy seeds guaranteed to produce plants from past generations.
Classes and workshops in Pennsylvania German/Dutch crafting and design are offered year-round, as well as fairs, festivals, and holiday celebrations. Visitors wanting to purchase country artifacts will find the Weathervane Museum Store has a vast collection from which to choose. Redware pottery, hand woven linens, tinware utensils, handmade leather goods, and puppets are some of the items available. Cabinetry, furniture, bowls and kitchen utensils, made by skilled wood craftsmen, are good examples of the Pennsylvania farm tradition. Several hundred different books on farming, gardening, cooking and history are sold here.
The museum opens 9 a.m. daily, except Sunday at noon, and closes at 5 p.m. Admission fees vary for adults, children, seniors and groups. Guided tours, parties and weddings are held throughout the year. There's something going on at the Landis Valley Museum no matter what the season. Visitors will never be disappointed by the unique experience in rural history presented here.
