Wenham Museum

You know you’ve lived in a place for a while when you start to discover all of those secret little places that the townies all know. We stumbled across the Wenham Museum completely by accident, when we were looking for things to do on a rainy weekend. This place is basically a small-​town history museum, but almost completely geared towards kids. Awesome!
There are about ten different model train sets down in the basement, and our group loved the fact that you could «control» the trains by pushing the power buttons. The historical toys were also great, with a perfect balance of «hands-​on» stuff for the kids next to informative displays that would interest any grownup.
If you love the Boston Children’s Museum but you hate the thought of trekking all the way into the city, you owe it to yourself to check out the Wenham Museum as an alternative!

Our family thought this museum is worth a trip on Saturday morning. It had vast amount of displays of dolls and trains. Trains in the basement is very cool and you should not miss that. We didn’t get a tour of the house next to the museum but we will get there someday. We vi sited the Family Arts and Craft Festival on 28 Aug 10 and saw many unique arts and crafts. Very nice place for a family to see!

We were looking for someone who knew something about restoring a antique doll that belonged to my grandmother, when we learned of the Wenham Museum which is located about 40 minutes north of Boston near Beverley. They were able to provide a list of resources but the best part of the story was that we discovered the Wenham Museum itself.
This is a small museum with dozens and dozens of exhibits including an extensive collection of dolls, doll houses and model trains. The place is arranged to appeal to both children and adults, so it’s a great place to take the kids where everyone will have fun.
The weekend we went to the museum, they had a large gallery set up to accommodate a huge model railroad made entirely of Lego by the New England Lego Users Group. There were a six or more Lego trains running around among houses and skyscrapers and farms and a carnival all made of Lego.
The permanent collection extends through a number of different galleries and provides a nice history of American (and some international) dolls. There are examples of different styles and the materials used to manufacture dolls over the years and some interactive things which kids (and adults) can do to play and to learn.
The model railroad exhibits are in various gauges and styles — and most have operating trains which race around complex loops of track and switches.
In addition to the dolls and trains, there are other displays of toy soldiers and fashions and other things which relate to how Americans families have lived and played over the years.
It’s easy to spend several hours here and still want to return to see and discover more.
And, across the street, is «The Exchange» at the Wenham Tea House which claims to be the oldest continually-​operating tea house in the country. It is an eminently civilized place for a traditional tea, or a light lunch or dinner. We stopped in for tea and pastry following our visit to the Wenham Museum and were pleased to see several families with grade-​school aged kids enjoying the serenity of a traditional English tea room. Possibly the kids had used up all their running-​around energy at the museum — or maybe all those Victorian dolls and trains had carried them back to a more tranquil time before video games and McDonald’s playland.
Check the Wenham Museum web site for current hours, admission fees, and news of special exhibits and programs.