Flag Day Celebration, Special Exhibit & Guided Tours at Great Road Heritage Campus 

On Sunday, June 11th, the historic sites at Lincoln's Great Road Historic Campus will host guided tours at all four 19th century properties, some with some special features on this day.  The tours offer something of interest to everyone and all ages. 

The restored 1850 one-room Pullen's Corner Schoolhouse will hold a special celebration of Flag Day to revisit the historic reasons for celebrating our country's flags.  Historic American flags, as well as regimental flags and state flags, will be displayed inside and outside the schoolhouse.  Historian Kirk Hindman will provide the background and history of the flags.  For kids and adults, there will be a special scavenger hunt involving the pictures and designs on the flags.  During the late 1800s and into the 1900s, Flag Day was celebrated in schoolhouses across the country with songs and poetry.  The school, also known as the "Hot Potato Schoolhouse," was Lincoln's last operating one-room schoolhouse, closing in 1922.  Visits to the schoolhouse are $5/family payable in cash upon arrival, or included as part of the general admission for tours of the full Campus.  The schoolhouse opens at 12:30 and will accept the last visitors at 3:30 p.m.    

At  Hearthside, the special exhibit "Woven Time: A History of the Talbot Family," details the period from 1904-1926 that the Talbot family lived here and brought national prominence to the house they named Hearthside and the superb hand weaving that they did in the attic.  The same year that the Talbots moved to Hearthside, it had been the model for the design of the Rhode Island Building at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.  The Talbots were at the forefront of the Arts & Crafts movement in this country, as well as the Colonial Revival.  Famous photographers used the house and family as their model for producing popular hand-colored photographs. The family also collected miniature furniture and toys which filled the home.  When they moved out of Hearthside in 1926, the miniatures were donated to the RISD Museum.  In 2021, those same miniatures returned to Hearthside. Learn the stories of this fascinating family plus see the special exhibits of  hand-colored photographs, weaving equipment, pattern examples, and many of the miniatures which have returned to Hearthside, as well as displays of world events during that time period that they lived here. The first tour begins at 12:30, with staggered admissions up to 2:30.

The Moffett Mill offers a rare opportunity to step back into a different century.  Built in 1812, this relic of the early Industrial Revolution is frozen in time, as it still appears the same as it did when its doors closed around 1900.  The mill operated with water power from the Moshassuck River and provided custom work and repairs for area businesses and farms, from wagons, buggies and tools to laces for shoes and corsets around the period of the Civil War.  The original equipment and tools are still in place, just as they were 120 years ago.  A shuttle transport will drop off and pick up visitors on a set schedule, as this is the only safe access to the Mill. The last tour is at 3:30 p.m. Admission to the Mill  is included in the admission fee at Hearthside, or if only visiting the Mill, it is $5/person. The only safe access to the Mill is by the Campus shuttle van.

At the Hannaway Blacksmith Shop, the blacksmith demonstrates at the forge while explaining the history of this original shop and the blacksmithing trade that occurred here.  Admission is free and visitors are welcome to stay as little or as long as they like. This is a drop-in visit so no advance scheduling is required. 

 Admittance times are staggered so as to avoid crowding, therefore advance registration is recommended.  While walk-ins may be accepted, there is no guarantee that the time slot will have openings so some flexibility would be required in the order of the tours. The first tours at all the sites begin at 12:30 with the last tour at Hearthside at 2:30 and at the other sites at 3:30.  The times are listed on our Registration Form which is attached. 

The $12 general admission includes the tour and exhibit at Hearthside, plus the schoolhouse exhibit and tours at the other three sites; $6 for youth under age 12.  Hearthside members who are current in their dues receive free admission.  As you plan your day, know that Hearthside tours take around 1 hour, 15 min. so don't book tours too close; you'll need to add in travel time.  The last tour at Hearthside begins at 2:30 and at the other sites at 3:30.  All sites close at 4:00 p.m.

Visitors are asked to check in at Hearthside first before heading out on your tours.  Here you will pay admission and receive an admission bracelet, and then take the shuttle van to visit the Mill and the other Campus sites. The tours may be taken in any order.   Parking is in the grass lot across from Hearthside. The shuttle van leaves from Hearthside and runs continuously between the sites.