North Hills museums offer history lessons to help keep kids learning in summer
Parents in the North Hills looking for ways to keep their kids busy during summer won’t have to travel far to include some fun history lesson.
Here are some of the places where visitors can glimpse the past through historical recreations and collections of artifacts.
The Depreciation Lands Museum in Hampton is a vibrant Colonial era living history settlement.
The museum’s peaceful wooded grounds transport the visitor into an earlier time, with costumed 18th century interpreters every Sunday afternoon during the season, which extends from May to October.
The site includes the Pine Creek Covenanter Church and cemetery, the Armstrong log house built in 1803, an herb garden, a replica school, working blacksmith shop, bee hive bake oven, smoke house and and 18th century style tavern. The barn houses a Conestoga wagon, displays, a workshop and a replica “mercantile” or general store.
McCandless Northern Allegheny Heritage Center
Housed in a building that takes its design cues from the one-room schoolhouses that once dotted the farmland that became the north suburbs, the McCandless Northern Allegheny Heritage Center in McCandless houses an eclectic collection of local history artifacts and American memorabilia.
Included in the collection are items representative of North Hills history and other memorabilia for the benefit of young people who may never have seen some of the items.
Artifacts include an antique wood-burning stove, an apple cider press, old photographs, maps, documents and military uniforms.
There also are a number of items representing technology used in the past such as an eight-track player, a vintage typewriter, a pay telephone and a Brownie camera.
Stewart/Schlag Log House
The historic log cabin is located in Ross Township’s Evergreen Community Park.
The 12-foot-by-15-foot cabin, which was built around 1800, provides visitors with a glimpse of the type of homes in which early settlers lived along with some of the tools they used.
The log house is open to the public for guided tours from 1 to 4 p.m. on the first and third Sundays of every month through September.
Visitors also can arrange a personal tour of the cabin by appointment.
To arrange a visit, call the Ross municipal building at 412-931-7055.
Tony LaRussa is a TribLive reporter. A Pittsburgh native, he covers crime and courts in the Alle-Kiski Valley. He can be reached at tlarussa@triblive.com.
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