The small, local history museums and folklife library are located in Red Men's Hall, Routes 29 and 63 in Green Lane, Pennsylvania. The museums are open to visitors on Sunday afternoons, 1:30 to 4:00 pm, April through October, except major holidays. The library is open only by appointment. Please see the Library page for contact details.
The Folklife Museum depicts the local Pennsylvania Dutch culture prior to 1870, the era of hand made furniture and textiles.
A weaver's shop, a cobbler's shop and turner's shop portray trades. It
displays special items of interest which includes a paint-decorated corner cupboard, a fully-dressed
Pennsylvania German rope bed and straw ticking, the 1864 Pomplitz and the 1820 Ziegler pipe organs, an eighteen century
fireplace for hearth cooking, a 1860 cook stove era kitchen, decorative needlework, and a footpedal 
lathe.
A mid-nineteenth century parlor is complete with a period melodian, and an original quilt-in-the-frame set
up for a quilting party. Children's toys are displayed under the quilt where youngsters
would be at play as their mothers and older sisters worked the quilt. Other settings are a flax
preparation exhibit and a reconstructed Pennsylvania Dutch attic. Small topical exhibits are interspersed
with room settings.
The Country Store is located on the ground floor Red Men's Hall, housing the 'Historian's collection of post 1870 manufactured goods in a setting of fixtures from the old Niantic Store. It exhibits a late 19th century general store where local families shopped for necessities. Nostalgia pervades this museum with its clutter. Yard goods, crockery, ground coffee, tobacco, clothing, garden implements and an apothecary shop surround a pot belly stove where a friendly game of checkers could be played next to the spittoon.
The shelves of The Country Store are stocked with fabric on bolts, sewing accessories and lace, hardware, blue mason
jars, kerosene lamp globes and period boxes of goods. Portrayed at the store is county
commerce-bartered homemade soap, baskets, home grown produce as well as pottery and tin ware from local tradesmen.
The museum's original 1890 ledger from the Herford Store reveals a great deal of this barter.
Additionally, an early blacksmith's shop is reconstructed in the basement of the hall to display hand made, 19th century tools in a 'smithy's setting.
Guided museum tours are free. Donations are accepted. For further information, call (610) 367-8286.
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