Experience History at the Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum

Some 270 years ago, German immigrants arrived in (what is now) Lancaster County, bringing their distinct culture, traditions and decorative arts with them. Most of these immigrants became farmers, tilling the fertile soil of southeast Pennsylvania. Today’s visitors will experience the evolution of this unique heritage at the 100-acre Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, which serves as a living history museum to rural Lancaster County and boasts the country’s largest collection of 18th and 19th century Pennsylvania German artifacts. 

The museum was the brainchild of two descendants of those early settlers, brothers George and Henry Landis. In 1925, the brothers opened a Barn Museum, filling it with everyday farm and household objects of the 18th and 19th century Pennsylvania German heritage. Fifty years and several expansions later, George and Henry arranged for their museum to be administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, whose staff and volunteers continue to collect, conserve, exhibit, and interpret Pennsylvania German material, culture, history and heritage from 1740 through 1940.

Among the structures at the site are an 1856 hotel, an 1890’s schoolhouse and a blacksmith shop. The museum constructed a firehouse, a 19th-century Swiss bank barn, and an 18th-century log home with a bakehouse and smokehouse, a pigsty and spring house. A new visitor’s center opened in 1970 and, in 1999, the Collections Gallery completed the museum’s existing layout.

In December, the Gallery exhibit is “Thrown, Fired, and Glazed: The Redware Tradition from Pennsylvania and Beyond.” The exhibit focuses on redware produced in southeastern Pennsylvania and showcases pieces from England, Germany, New England, and elsewhere in the U.S. Objects on display date from 1684 to the work of today’s traditional potters and include pieces never before seen by the public.

Landis Valley offers classes and workshops for adults and children, including for making holiday ornaments and decorations. Check the event calendar for dates and times. Be sure to allow time to visit the Weathervane Museum Store, which carries more than 2,000 items, including history, farming, cooking and gardening books. It also has features Fraktur folk art paintings (a unique art form practiced by Pennsylvania Germans in the 18^th and 19^th centuries), wooden cabinetry and utensils, and more.

Landis Valley Museum
2451 Kissel Hill Rd.
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 569-0401