Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum

Goal: $5,000.00

Specific Need

We're udderly excited to announce our campaign to replace Milkie, our fiberglass cow. By investing in this project, we're fostering a deeper understanding of dairy farming and agriculture with a fun, hands-on experience. Milkie has long been a favorite of our visitors, young and old and after 20 years, she's grown tired and needs to be sent out to pasture. Every dollar counts! Your contribution will go directly toward the purchase of a high-quality, realistic milking cow for our museum. Spread the Word: Share our campaign with friends, family, and fellow community members who believe in the value of agricultural education.

Mission

The Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving, promoting, and bringing to life the rich agricultural history of Loudoun County and educating people about farming today. We do this through hands-on activities, exhibits, school and Scout programs, history programs, the annual Apple Festival and Dairy Day, and other family-friendly programs.

Profile

The Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum is located in Claude Moore Park in eastern Loudoun County. We are surrounded by open space, nature trails, two ponds, and historic buildings. The Museum’s collection and archives contain a variety of materials related to farming and farm life, many of them rare, including an original Yardley Taylor map of Loudoun County; the contents, ledgers, and invoices from the Waxpool General Store; and the papers of James Smith. The Workhorse Museum, open to the public during special events, houses a unique collection of equine agricultural materials. We fulfill our mission and serve the community in a variety of ways as we have been doing for almost 20 years.

Interactive Exhibits

Visitors learn about farming and farm life through our hands-on exhibits. The Waxpool General Store and Post Office was reconstructed in the Museum, complete with its sales counters, cash register, meat scale, shelves, and other fixtures from the store. Visitors of all ages can “shop” in the store with plastic fruits and vegetables or be the shop keeper and postmaster/postmistress. Once the groceries have been purchased, they can be taken to Grandma’s Kitchen, which replicates a farm kitchen from the early 1900s. In the circa 1909 one-room schoolhouse, visitors can sit in period desks and use the McGuffy readers, slates, and chaulk. In the equestrienne area, children can pretend to ride Genuine Risk and groom a horse in its stable. Perhaps the most beloved hands-on activity is “milking” Milkie the Cow. Visitors can gather wooden eggs from the chicken coop inside Milkie’s barn.

A living history exhibit – an operational blacksmith forge – opened in November 2020.

Permanent and Rotating Exhibits

The Farm Museum tells the story of Loudoun’s agricultural past through permanent, three-dimensional exhibits covering the county’s 18^th century farming practices, slavery, wheat production, bee keeping, apple orchards, farm equipment, and dairy farming.

Rotating exhibits allow the Museum to partner with outside organizations on displays, such as the Loudoun Museum and the Edwin Washington Project. Interpretive panel exhibits can be rotated periodically and transported outside the museum for display elsewhere.

School Programs

The Museum offers a number of interactive programs for children that meet the Virginia Standards of learning. The museum has a variety of school programs such as:

School Field Trips (public school, private school, and homeschool groups) about farming and farm life, such as All Around the Farm, Grandma’s Kitchen, Katie’s Apple Farm, Pumpkin Planet, Simple Machines, Plant It, and Farmin’ Fever.
Station programs are new this year and give an entire grade level at a school the opportunity to rotate through various stations during a 4-hour period. Static stations include the museum, Blacksmith shop, Workhorse Collection, Lanesville Ordinary and Bridge's One-Room Schoolhouse. Variable stations can be customized based on the school's needs and can include historic toys and games, native americans, bartering, mapping, and various historic trades.
Historic Encounters Days are our living history days with a variety of stations including costumed interpreters demonstrating historic trades such as blacksmithing, gunsmithing, historic cooking, soldiering (Revolutionary and Civil War), spinning and weaving and many other stations. Each month has a different theme such as Historic Trades, Entertainment, Food, 18th Century Life, and Revolutionary War.

Events and Programs

Each year the Museum holds family-friendly outdoor festivals that bring farming to life. During the Apple Festival in September, visitors can taste heirloom apples, watch apple cider pressing, and enjoy games and activities from the past. Farmyard Fun, held during spring break, gives visitors the opportunity to learn about horses, bunnies, chicks, baby goats and other farm animals.

The Museum supports community gardening by providing sixteen beds to rent so people can grow their own vegetables and herbs.

The Museum periodically hosts talks and seminars about the history of farming in Loudoun County and vegetable and herb gardening techniques. The Museum believes in community partnerships for strengthening bonds and more effectively reaching and educating the public.