Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

INSIDE IOWA STATE
June 14, 2002

Farm House hosts July 4 event

What started as a grand opening celebration at the Farm House Museum has become a summer tradition. The annual old-fashioned Fourth of July afternoon at the Farm House also is the anniversary of the museum's opening on July 4, 1976.

"We try to do this event every year because it's both educational and fun," said Eleanor Ostendorf, curator of the Farm House Museum. "We're hoping to have a big crowd this year."

The picnic event runs from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, July 4, and will feature activities reminiscent of the 1880s. A craft station will be set up for children to complete an old-fashioned craft they can take with them. Victorian games, including sack races, egg and spoon races, and "hoops and graces" will be available.

Free refreshments -- including hotdogs, popcorn and lemonade -- will be served outdoors. The Ames-area Onion Creek Cloggers will provide live period music from 1:30 to 2 p.m., and clogging dance demonstrations intermittently between 2 and 3:30 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets.

The Farm House Museum will be open and staff will lead tours between 1 and 4 p.m.