This place is straight out of an episode of the X-Files. I'm from New York City so I've seen some…read moreweird sh*t - and this place creeped me out. Mummified animal remains, letters from serial killers, killer clowns, and a cardboard cutout of Danny DeVito... this museum does not disappoint! While not a full "house" of oddities, I would say it's more like a 1-bedroom apartment of oddities, but this "Whacky World of Weirdful Wonder" is completely FREE! They sell all sorts of strange toys, t-shirts, and trinkets. You can buy unique art pieces such as a "Death Loaf" (a loaf of bread impaled with spikes). Bonus tip: There's a bathroom in the back with a poster of Le Pétomane - a French performer with a unique...er...talent.

This place was amazing! There is a wide assortment of preserved animals, skulls, and artifacts. We…read moreall enjoyed our visit and will check it out again the next time we are in town.

I love this place and area. magical, peaceful, lovely. I…read morehave been foraging here for Asian pears, apples, paw paws and wine berries. I have been here for the Karma Fest, sadly the one here was in late June of this year, it will be missed. I have so many incredible memories here. love this place.

I do not understand why this museum is not advertised. Found this by complete accident when I was…read moreon my way to Rock Run Mill. I thought there was nothing to do near Aberdeen MD but I am so glad I found this place. I didn't expect a museum in a middle of the park to be so big and so good. The museum consists of about five different buildings with different theme in each one. Don't want to spoil it, just go. I figured I wouldn't spend more than an hour since I didn't think it would be that big. But I ended up spending almost three hours there! The main reason this museum is so great is the volunteers!!! Thank you so much each and every one of you (if you happen to read this). There is a volunteer working in each building (one was empty since the volunteer didn't show up[but you can still go in there]). All the volunteers are so knowledgeable and so friendly! They know everything! One guide/volunteer was asked a question to which he didn't know the answer to. He actually went out to find the answer from other volunteers! Even if you don't want to explore the museums the whole area is lovely to walk around. I saw a deer. For someone who lives in NY, that alone is enough to make my day. Anyways, once again THANX to all the volunteers and workers! You guys make this museum. For potential visitors, don't even debate if you should go there, JUST GO! But be prepared to spend at least two hours there! It's well worth it. BTW apparently people have weddings here too! I don't know if this would be my choice for a wedding location, but definitely worth revising!

Living part time in NYC where I'm reliant on public transportation, it's kind of a treat to ride in…read morethe car when I'm back in PA. I was game when my husband suggested visiting Hagley Museum in Wilmington, DE. Hagley is the DuPont family's first U.S. "home," though I'd describe it more as an estate. The property encompasses 235 acres along the banks of the Brandywine with historic buildings, a research library and black powder mills. The gardens and grounds are spectacular. There's shuttle service between the visitors' center, powder yard and DuPont residence. What particularly impressed me are the friendly and knowledgeable docents leading tours at key sites. Demonstrations are pretty cool, including a blast -- a literal blast! -- at the black powder mill. (As I learned, gunpowder is made from black powder, so not exactly synonymous.) Wear comfortable shoes. Some paths are rocky. And if you can, avoid visiting on a broiling hot day. (I should've taken my own advice!)

Hagley is a little hard to describe, but I spent hours there this past weekend, so I'll do my best!…read moreHagley is one of many properties in the area associated with the du Pont family. Hagley is where Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founded his black powder mills in 1802. For more than 100 years (the factory was the largest in the world but then closed in 1921), it was the center of the du Pont family's work, wealth, and success. The reason it's hard to explain? Hagley has multiple areas and attractions - it's not just one place or one thing. There's the Powder Yard, Workers' Hill, the historic home and gardens, and the Nation of Inventors (a museum/exhibit exploring inventors/patents in 19th century America). When you arrive at the visitor center, a friendly staff members hands over a map, which you'll need during your visit. You can walk around most of the property, but you do have to take their shuttle to get to and from the historic home and gardens. Since I was already at the visitors center, I explored the Nation of Inventors first and found it interesting and fun (with some interactive aspects). Then I walked along the Brandywine River and the mill race to the Powder Yard. There, I visited the Powder Yard Orientation Gallery (for some context), explored the roll mills (historic structures where the black powder was produced), and visited the millwright shop. At the millwright shop, the friendly staff turned on some of the 19th century machines in the machine room, explained about the work that happened at the factory, and demonstrated a small, contained black powder explosion. From there, I took the shuttle to the historic home and gardens. I visited the barn (where you can see carriages and antique vehicles), the pollinator garden, and the restored French kitchen garden, before taking a tour of the house and the First Office (a structure next to the house that served as DuPont Company headquarters). After all this, I looked at my phone to realize I had spent about 2 hours longer than I had intended to at Hagley and I was starving. It says a lot that I had intended to spend about 2 hours at the museum and then go grab lunch in Wilmington and instead spent at least 4 hours at the museum. And I didn't even make it to Workers' Hill (where you can visit another house, the Sunday school, a picnic pavilion, and the workers' garden)! There is so much to do at Hagley. I learned a ton (big thanks to the docents that helped me to learn at Hagley - Pete, John, and Jonathan), and I had a great time. Visiting Hagley is easy - most sites have tours or demonstrations on the half hour, so you're never waiting for long for something new to begin. The shuttle makes it easy to get around, but the property was also beautiful to walk around. Hagley would be great for anyone interested in history, science, or the Brandywine region. Definitely plan to spend a long time here to fully experience what it has to offer!

I visited the 1719 Museum this past Saturday and really enjoyed the experience…read more The guided tour starts with a short film about the property that provides some great context for the rest of the tour. Then you leave the visitor center and walk over to the first structure of tour, which is a full-sized reproduction of a Native American longhouse. Longhouses (large multi-generational family homes made of logs, saplings, and tree bark) were once ubiquitous in Pennsylvania, including along the Susquehanna River. At the time the Hans Herr home was built, south-central Pennsylvania was home to several Indigenous tribes, including the Shenks Ferry, Conoy, Lenape, Mohawk, Nanticoke, Seneca, Shawnee, and Susquehannock peoples. The 1719 Museum collaborated with the Circle Legacy Center and members of the local indigenous community to build the longhouse reproduction in order to share the history of and honor Pennsylvania's native communities and educate visitors to the area. With your guide, you walk into the longhouse, where you sit down while the guide explains quite extensively about the Native communities in the area, the longhouse and its architecture, and the relationships between the indigenous people and the Mennonite people who made homes in the area. After the longhouse, the guide walks you over to the Hans Herr House. It was built in 1719 and is a 2-story, rectangular sandstone Germanic-style dwelling. It is the oldest dwelling in Lancaster County and the oldest Mennonite meetinghouse in America. The guide walks you through various rooms in the house and shares information about the Herr family as well as the larger Mennonite community in early Pennsylvania history. Our guide was Cindy, and she was incredible. I learned so much about the Native, Indigenous and Mennonite communities of 18th century Pennsylvania (and - in the case of the Native peoples - a much earlier history of their lives in Pennsylvania). She really educated us on a broad range of topics, while keeping the tour fun (I love fun education)! She made my tour extra special. If you're spending some time exploring Lancaster Counter, the 1719 Museum should definitely make your itinerary! In one place, you can learn a little bit about Pennsylvania's Native and Mennonite communities, and it's just a special place!

Why is the Hans Herr House significant and who the hell was Hans Herr?…read more The house itself is significant as it is the last remaining structure that is still standing from the original group of Mennonites who came to the Lancaster County area to escape religious persecution from their native Switzerland. The house is also significant in that it is the oldest structure in Lancaster County and likely the oldest remaining Mennonite meetinghouse in the Western Hemisphere. The original group traveled from Switzerland to Germany to escape religious persecution then after a governmental regime change they were forced from Germany to England where they met with William Penn who allowed them to colonize a portion of what is current day Lancaster County or when they arrived in 1711, the extreme most western frontier of Pennsylvania. One interesting piece of information is that the house did not belong to Hans Herr as it was built by his son Christian which is why his initials are over the doorway along with the inscribing mark of 1719. On the tour you are told why the name remained(s) Hans Herr House versus Christian Herr House but honestly I forget why. Maybe something just deferential from Christian towards his father or because of his father's status with the original group that came to the area or maybe everyone just liked the flow of the name more so it's based on tradition? The tour itself is around 40-45 minutes and it starts in the building which houses the gift shop and you are given a brief overview of the Anabaptist faith, the Mennonites who are direct descendants of the faith and a map which shows the route the initial settlers took from Switzerland to Pennsylvania. After that you are taken over to the house where you see the three rooms which make up the first floor (kitchen, bedroom and all purpose dining room-meeting room-family room) and the second floor which is where the eight children slept and finally the basement which is accessed from a side entrance outside of the house. You learn that the key to the home's design is that they didn't believe in wasting any space so every inch served a purpose such as not having hallways so as soon as you walk in the front door you're right in the kitchen. One thing worth noting, if you are someone who is hardcore hung up on only visiting historical places if they have lots of original items then this place might not be for you. There is not a whole lot original to the house that you can see with the exception of a piece of the ceiling insulation on the first floor (rye straw + manure + ??), the wooden crossbeam over the kitchen fireplace and the steps which go from the second floor to the third floor attic (obviously you can't use them). Past that I think most everything else was changed out in the 19th century when the house was still used as a residence or in the early 70's when the initial renovation occurred to make things into a tourist destination. If you want more original take a look at the bibles on display in the gift shop which are original to Hans and Christian. I wouldn't call the Hans Herr House a must see, but it's interesting enough and the tour is the right length to keep everyone interested along with being located close enough to most of Lancaster County's tourist elements. If you go: The 1719 Hans Herr House is open April 1 through November 30, Monday-Saturday, 9:00 AM-4:00 PM. Forty-five minute Herr House tours are offered at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. This is not the tour information for their reproduction Native American Longhouse. That tour is offered at 10 a.m., 12 noon and 2 p.m and has an entirely different focus. Prices are currently Adults: $8, Children 7-12: $4 and Children 6 and under: free with a slight discount if you choose to tour both structures. There are also several special events that happen throughout the year and that information is available on their website.

I took my children to the Franklin Institute and overall felt the price of the ticket was worth it…read more However, as a teacher, I was dismayed that the newer exhibits (Wonderous Space and Body Odessey) were very screen-heavy with an emphasis on watching videos and clicking. The few hands-on experiences were very popular (the Giant Heart, the Asteroid) and for good reason. I'm sure the exhibits were expensive, but I would love to see a return to more tactile learning for a child-centered museum. The older exhibits like Sir Isaac's Loft, Sports Zone, and Amazing Machines were great for young kids. There were so many engaging opportunities for hands-on exploration. The Science Live Shows were wonderful (we saw Liquid Air and Combustion) and both presenters were very funny and engaging. We spent about 2.5 hours there and could have stayed longer!

When trying to find something to do with my niece who was visiting me last weekend, this came to…read moremy. Because she just finished up a STEM camp for kids back home and her just liking to see/do new things, decided to take her here. Glad I did because she had a blast! We didn't get a chance to see the new Universal Theme park/studios exhibit, but she loved everything else - walking through the heart, the space exhibit where she looked up at the stars and tried to figure out how she would jump in another planet's atmosphere, etc. Great time and look forward to coming back in the future!

Amazing property, it is a hidden gem. Went with my family for the tour and everyone enjoyed it!read more

Wow. What a unique, random gem and historic property. What is Fonthill and why is there a castle in…read moreDoylestown, Pennsylvania? Fonthill Castle was the home of archeologist and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer. (Also in Doylestown are two more Mercer buildings you can tour - the Mercer Museum and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works building, the business Mercer ran and where most of the tiles in the castle were produced.) Henry Mercer seems like he was an interesting guy, and you can see that in his home - 44 rooms, 18 fireplaces, 200 windows, who knows how many staircases...! And designed and decorated in a way I've never seen anywhere else. The castle is an early example of poured-in-place concrete building and is a mix of Medieval, Gothic, and Byzantine architectural styles. And there are, of course, Moravia tiles (and some historic and international tiles that he collected during his life) throughout the house - almost more than you could imagine. We visited last Saturday to experience their "Fonthill Castle Holiday Lights Meander Experience," which allows you to visit the castle through a self-guided experience (there were staff in various rooms who were happy to answer questions) and enjoy a series of Christmas trees on display throughout the home. I definitely enjoyed the experience but am definitely planning a return visit to see the castle in better light (not at night in the dark - which was perfect for the Christmas tree experience) - they offer 60-minute guided tours though the house for most of the year! The castle is pretty wild, and I look forward to visiting it again and experiencing it in a new way. If you are interested in architecture, art, crafts, the Arts and Crafts design movement, or just quirky, unusual places, definitely add Fonthill to your list and check it out!

With our North American Reciprocal Museum (ROAM) membership, entry to The Mütter was free. I…read morerecommend the museum for those interested in medical science. Preserved specimens dating back nearly two centuries ago are there for viewing and learning. There are a couple rooms that seem to rotate exhibits from today on the first floor. The upper level seems to be reserved as a meeting / reception area, within what may formerly was a medical library. Interesting.

I came here once in high school and again recently for its community day where it was free…read moreadmission (normally $20 for a ticket). The mutter museum used to be a collection for private medical education at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Their main exhibit is the area with red carpet where you can go downstairs and look at all of the displays of human remains, replicas, and health information. They definitely break it down for non health professions to understand. There's a lot of fascinating things that they have preserved and displayed. They also have the Franklin garden, art therapy room, and legionnaires "Philly killer" exhibit. They do have a mini gift store at the front if you want to pop in. Because it is a small museum, I think you could go through the entire museum in about 1.5 hours if you read everything and looked at every exhibit.

If you're a fan or art and/or a frequent visitor of art museums in the U.S., you may recognize…read moreCharles Demuth's work. He's often credited as setting the stage for Modernist art. Lancaster has two museums honoring Demuth. One is inside Demuth's house in downtown. (It happens to be one of the oldest buildings in the area.) It's a proper museum with exhibits about his life, house, and work. There are even a few areas for children to interact with history and art. Outside is a beautiful garden that his mother kept for cooking. The second museum is a contemporary art museum with art from local artists spread across two floors and three galleries. Staff are kind and admission is a suggested donation of $5.

The Demuth Museum was a welcomed distraction during my visit. Lancaster isn't that big of a town,…read morebut there is hustle and bustle out on the street that you can escape from by entering this museum. It is honestly a well put together museum that is detailed to Demuth and his connection to Lancaster. This museum is part viewing and part interaction. It is two floors and you can move about it at your own pace and in any direction you feel appropriate. Take you time while doing this and you can definitely find a place to the side to appreciate the art. At the time of my visit the downstairs had an exhibit of art on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It is a small exhibit but the pieces you find in the exhibit can definitely be appreciated. They rotate what is on exhibit in here dependent on what they can get on loan. I was told that they would be doing a change up soon on the pieces and it would be a whole new experience. Throughout the rest of the museum the pieces you see are pieces of Demuth himself. They have many pieces from Demuth that they rotate in and out of viewing sot that means you may not experience the same thing twice in a long while. With this museum being the family home of Demuth, you not only get to view the museum, but the home that is kind of a time capsule of when it was in use as a home. Upstairs it goes more into depth on Demuth himself. You can view the materials he used to create some of his art and learn about his life when he was younger and his travels to study art. In what I would say is the last room for you to visit is a room that contains art of artist that were from other countries looking to start anew in America. One piece invited you to write a message of encouragement to add to the piece of art. This really added an interactive touch to this museum. From the upstairs you can see the garden that inspired Demuth to produce some of his art. And where he spent time with his family.

Every once in a while you drive past a place so many times that it almost becomes part of the…read morescenery. That was the Turkey Hill Experience for me. I'd driven past it countless times over the last few years but either didn't have enough time to stop or couldn't convince anyone else to stop with me. During my Lancaster Adventure Day, though, all of that changed. I purchased a Single Scoop ticket online ahead of time for $16.75 and reserved the very first time slot of the day at 10am. I figured a late-summer Thursday morning would be the sweet spot, and it turned out to be a great decision. It was busy enough that the place felt lively but not so crowded that I had to wait for every exhibit. Parking was plentiful, and I somehow managed to snag a spot right in front of the GIANT cow out front. Honestly, my day was already off to a fantastic start! The only hiccup of the visit came during check-in. Even though I'd already purchased my ticket online, I still had to wait in the same line as everyone buying gift shop items, purchasing admission and asking questions. Since there were only a two employees working both the registers and admissions, the line moved a little slower than I expected. If I could change one thing, it would be creating a separate express check-in line for folks who already have tickets. Once I finally made it inside, though, everything became easy peasy! The exhibits are completely self-guided, so you can wander at your own pace learning how Turkey Hill makes its ice cream and iced tea while playing with interactive displays along the way. One of my favorite parts was creating my own virtual ice cream flavor, complete with custom packaging. I also wanted to film my own Turkey Hill commercial, but those stations stayed busy the entire time I was there, so that'll have to wait until another visit. Naturally, I made a beeline for the tea sampling station. As someone who appreciates sugar-free options, I was thrilled to find both Zero Sugar Sweet Tea and Zero Sugar Fruit Punch available to sample. Both were fantastic! Then it was time for the part we'd all been waiting for...unlimited ice cream samples. One thing I really appreciated is that they weren't tiny little "blink and it's gone" samples. You picked two flavors, and they served actual scoops in a bowl. For an attraction centered around ice cream, that felt exactly right. My only tiny complaint? Wooden popsicle sticks instead of spoons. They definitely got the job done, but they made eating melting ice cream a little more awkward than it needed to be. Still...free and unlimited ice cream? I'm not about to complain too loudly! I spent about an hour wandering through the exhibits, playing with the interactive displays and enjoying the air conditioning on a hot August morning before making one final stop in the gift shop. Prices there were about what you'd expect for a tourist attraction, but there were plenty of fun souvenirs if you're looking to bring a little Turkey Hill home with you. Overall, I'd absolutely recommend visiting the Turkey Hill Experience at least once. I don't know that it's somewhere I'd return over and over again, but it was a fun, interactive way to spend an hour learning something new, eating entirely acceptable quantities of free ice cream and escaping the August heat. That sounds like a pretty successful adventure day to me!

Turkey Hill Experience was a fun stop for our family! We visited with three kids, and everyone…read morefound something to enjoy. The interactive exhibits were engaging, and the kids loved learning how ice cream is made and creating their own virtual flavors. The highlight was definitely sampling the different ice cream flavors and making our own ice cream creations.

Super cute place! We sat at the bar and the bartender was super helpful. Didn't realize they had…read moresuch an extensive menu so sadly we had already had lunch but our order of potato skins was delicious and great presentation. Might suggest better signs downstairs on outside of building of where to enter for the restaurant- maybe some big arrows painted? the downstairs is the car museum and it looked pretty amazing too! It's a great place to visit, don't miss it!

I am glad I found this place! I'm a car lover and visiting this place was ideal. The guy that works…read moreat the main lobby was nice and knowledgeable about cars! I enjoyed the selection of cars. They also have some cool merchandise to purchase.