the pencader heritage museum

I have passed this museum countless times & never stopped in. One of the reasons for this is that the museum has limited hours of operations. It is only open the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month. So, you have to plan accordingly. We finally made it there the other day.We pulled into the parking lot and thought that there might be other visitors inside since there were several cars in the parking lot. Once inside, we found that the only other people there were the staff. An older gentleman came to greet us and asked us to sign their electronic guest book. Then he gave us an general overview of the museum that consists of 3 rooms (the main room, Pencader Room and the Dayett Room). There is also displays hung in the hallways and even the restroom. Some of the topics covered in the museum are the Cooch family, the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, Farm Tools, Trains, Female Aviators, Military, Dayett Mill, Natural Fibers, the Newark Delaware Chrysler Plant Tanks, Household items, Schools, Local Maps, Mason-Dixon, the Ghost of Cooch's Bridge, Medical/Apothecary/Optical items, local Lenape Indians, Famous Politician Autographs and more. As we begun our tour, a lady staffer came and engaged our children. She offered them dolls to carry around the museum while we there & allowed the kids to shake the Native American rattles. As we walked through the exhibits, the gentleman staffer would give us tid-bits of information regarding the displays. He would point out some that he felt were important and elaborate on them. Overall, we had a nice visit with the Pencader Heritage museum. It is FREE to visit. They do have a donation jar should you want to make a donation. They have a lot of historical information packed into this small space. Some of the displays are really nice. Others could be displayed better or have more detailed information. I think that this could be resolved with some financial funding and time. We did see them working on updating & making new tags for a few of the displays while we were there. I felt the staff really engaged us and our children. They were all really friendly. I do feel that we learned several things regarding Delaware history that we never knew. Without the staff engaging us & guiding the tour, I do not know if I would have gained as much from just a walk through. So, I would recommend that you welcome staff interaction during your visit. They were willing to answer questions too! Note: Open the first & third Saturday of each month from 10:00AM - 4:00PM. The staff told us that they hold special events here in September and December. They have a memorial service for fallen soldiers in September and they do a "wreaths across america" dedication ceremony in December.

This small museum has an enormous amount of history - and items. I was very surprised. The history of the area is very interesting. Anyone from Delaware should visit.

It looks like a southern colonial house from the outside. It looks really inviting from the outside. We have been to Dickinson Plantation SE of Dover several years ago. It was very nice, but has limited hours. As soon as we get a chance we will check it out.