museum of rural life

Our family was staying overnight in Easton and decided to visit a museum on this rainy day. We searched the GPS listings and found this museum in Denton... off we went. We were warmly greeted by Carol Stokely (sp?) who, at near 90 years old, was vibrant and dedicated to the museum's interpretation. The original building is dated to the early 1800s and is the headquarters for the Caroline County Historical Society (on second floor). More rooms were added to to provide an expansion of exhibits. As noted earlier, the museum is deceiving in that is very expansive once inside. Carol indicated there were plans to annex the town offices behind the museum in the future as funds become available. A group named "The Questers" donated several antique pieces. Carol showed us several exhibits, which primarily focused on facets of some of the Caroline County area buildings, along with an extensive display of paintings and sketches by artist Mark Priest depicting slavery and The Underground Railroad. Further information about the museum can be found at: http://www.carolinehistory.org/places/museum-of-rural-life/ and a great write-up by Shalagh Hogan, with great photos & descriptions, at http://travelhag.com/2013/08/04/museum-of-rural-life-denton/. We decided to have lunch at the nearby Market Street Pub, which was a good decision :-)

Was lunching in Denton and saw the sign for this museum. Its on a historical square in a little historical, albeit sleepy village. The building is deceiving from outside where it just looks like a house on the square but when you enter it goes and goes. This is the second museum I have visited this month presided over by a single volunteer who did not have the lights on. I do understand that if you are not expecting anyone saving electricity makes sense, but as a visitor, I really feel unwelcomed. I was hoping to see a few displays about Denton or some Rural displays...being interested in farm equipment. The volunteer advised that the regular displays had been removed/rearranged to allow for a painting display. The paintings did not impress, although there is an entire log cabin that was interesting. There is also a lot of furniture, but since I am not interested in furniture, I will let someone else comment on it. I am sure there are a lot of resources here that I did not investigate. Hope other reviewers do.