Frontier Culture Museum
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CLOSED NOW - Opens at 10:00am

1290 Richmond Ave, Staunton, VA 24401

The Frontier Culture Museum tells the story of the thousands of people who migrated to colonial America, and of the life they created here for themselves and their descendents. These first pioneers came to America during the 1600s and 1700s from communities in the hinterlands of England, Germany, Ireland, and West Africa. Many were farmers and rural craftsmen set in motion by changing conditions in their homelands, and drawn to the American colonies by opportunities for a better life. Others came as unwilling captives to work on farms and plantations. Regardless of how they arrived, all became Americans, and all contributed to the success of the colonies, and of the United States. To tell the story of these early immigrants and their American descendents, the Museum has moved or reproduced examples of traditional rural buildings from England, Germany, Ireland, West Africa, and America. The Museum engages the public at these exhibits with a combination of interpretive signage and living history demonstrations. The outdoor exhibits are located in two separate areas: the Old World and America. The Old World exhibits show rural life and culture in four homelands of early migrants to the American colonies. The American exhibits show the life these colonists and their descendents created in the colonial backcountry, how this life changed over more than a century, and how life in the United States today is shaped by its frontier past.

Reviews

Ina P.

08/11/2015

Provided by YPmobile

This museum is a collection of historic buildings relocated from around the region as well as imported from England, Ireland, and Germany.
There is also a recreaction of a Native village - complete with dugout canoe that you can help hollow with a burning branch and large seashell - and a newly constructed West African compound that was built using the traditional construction methods.

The buildings represent the architecture styles brought to the valley by early European and African settlers. The youngest of the buildings' architectural features demonstrates how the different cultures came together and shared ideas.

There are knowledgeable reenactors at each homesite, who demonstrate different skills from the time period.

The setting is beautiful and the museum grounds are immaculate. We have visited several times and have learned something new on each trip. It is a great educational experience for adults as well as children. I highly recommend the Frontier Culture Museum. If you are ever driving past Staunton, Virginia, stop in for a few hours. You won't regret it.

curmugeon12

06/18/2009

Provided by YP.com

beautiful grounds, wonderful history, not so good with weddings

The ground of the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia overlook a phenomenal landscape due to their proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The collection of sites within the museum led to a wonderful experience of the grounds.

But...My wife and I went there to book and have our wedding reception party. The location for the reception was great, and though we had to decorate it ourselves, looked beautiful. We had a wonderful time during the reception, and many people complemented our choice of location.

The people we had to deal with to book the pavilion? for our reception were less than helpful, less than honest, quite patronizing, and incredibly irresponsible. My wife and I had our reception location fee paid off 10 months in advance, and we had the cancelled checks to prove it. About a month before the wedding, we got a letter in the mail saying that we still owed about half of the cost to keep the pavilion for our reception. If we didn't pay that, they were going to rebook it. SO..we tried to tell them they must have overlooked the record of our payment, and they swore they hadn't. So, I had to go to the bank I wrote the check from, sit for an hour to be seen, have somebody look through the records of the checking account that had been closed for 3 months, and then send copies of the cancelled checks to the FCM of VA, after my wife, her mom, and her step dad had to drive up and try to straighten things out in the first place. 30 minute drive, and gas was $4 a gallon at the time. They apologized profusely at first and promised to do anything they could to make up for their mistake. They just hadn't looked through the file carefully enough, was their excuse. That didn't last very long...

I went in to tell them what they could do to make things right, and the woman in charge proceeded to tell me to my face, they had promised nothing to make things right, they had made no mistakes, and the only things affected by the occurrence were my emotions. We were lucky they didn't rebook our reception site, I was overreacting, and that I should just be happy that I was getting married. The woman in charge was a horrible person, who cared nothing for our business since they already had the cash, and now a newly printed record of it as well. Did I mention she was the top tier of their Admin?

It's a beautiful place to see, but don't have your reception there. 2 different parts of the same business.