Visiting the The Heritage Farmstead Museum

If you are struck with the weekend wanderlust or long for a taste of the simple life, consider a quick jaunt to Plano to visit the historic Farrell-Wilson farmstead at the Plano Heritage Farmstead Museum. We discovered this precious community treasure through Groupon of all places and I'm so glad we took a lazy Saturday afternoon to explore and observe this living history.

When entering the farmstead visitors are greeted by a historically dressed museum docent who will provide a guided walking tour through the property. This peak at a "day in the life" on a 19th century black land prairie farmstead in Texas included learning about daily chores and the appliance technology of the day like a coal heated iron and a hand spun wash basin. This farmstead even has a maintained kitchen garden, root cellar and curing house.

After touring the home we walked past the original pole barn to visit the farm's newest family members, two sets of twin lambs born this spring.  One of the mamas passed in kidding and the two orphaned lambs now have a team of volunteers who come just to visit and cuddle these sweet babies.

The tractor shop and blacksmith shop were the boy's favorite part of the tour. The farm has three original tractors on site- including a Fordson, the first tractor to come to Texas from up north, metal tires and all! Texans at the time weren't impressed with this northern contraption that sank in our heavy clay soil but this garden gal sure was amused!

The restored school house was moved to the property as a gift from the City of Plano and perfectly modeled a typical one room school house. The farmstead also has a chicken coop and kitchen garden. I was tickled to noticed a few peach Denton Irises around the garden and family cemetery and loved seeing how flowers planted generations ago are still passing on their legacy and beauty to future generations. We loved our time at the Heritage Farmstead Museum and will have many repeat visits in our future. I hope you'll check out this local working farmstead and appreciate the grit and tenacity of our early Texans.