From 18th century plantations to modern pocket gardens in our downtown areas, explore our region’s rich history of farming, agriculture, and gardening by visiting the following sites:
Camel’s Hump Farm Environmental Education Center and Community Garden
Camel’s Hump Farm offers both environmental and historic programming and has the only remaining PA double decker bank barn in Northampton and Lehigh counties.
Forks Township Historical Society
Start at the Zucksville Road entrance to the Forks Township Park and visit our 1760’s Log Cabin and continue walking, jogging or bicycling on the Two Rivers Trailway: Linking Forks Township, Palmer Township and Easton’s Karl Stirner Art Trail. Plenty of free parking at the Forks Township Recreation Center. Click Here for a map of the entire Two Rivers Trailway
Governor Wolf Historical Society
Governor Wolf Historical Society includes Richard Nye Memorial Garden, an herb and pleasure garden with brick walks.
Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites
The Louise W. Dimmick Memorial Garden at Burnside Plantation is a representation of an early American Kitchen Garden. The garden is planted with heirloom seeds and plants and everything is grown organically as would have been done during the colonial period. Burnside Plantation also houses an apple orchard containing four types of heritage apple trees: Newton Pippin, Rhode Island Greening, Roxbury Russet, and Esopus Spitzenburg.
Historic Easton Cemetery
The grounds of Easton Cemetery provide visitors with an opportunity to see trees and plants that may have been there since the cemetery opened in 1849. At that time family members maintained the plantings at their grave sites. Today a group of volunteers have adopted the French Garden planters and rose bushes in an effort to restore this special tradition. The display of leaf colors in the Fall is spectacular!
Horner’s Cemetery Historical Society
Horner’s Cemetery Historical Society invites visitors to tour the many framed and stone settlement homes that have survived time.
Jacobsburg Historical Society
The Henry family maintained formal gardens, where they enjoyed many picnics and tea parties, behind the 1832 J. Joseph Henry House. An herb garden outside the Summer Kitchen provided the family with herbs for cooking, teas, and medicinal purposes. The Boulton Heritage Walk, a self-guided one-half mile walk, winds through Henry’s woods, one of Pennsylvania’s premier Old Growth Forests. It connects the site of the Boulton Gun Works to the Henry Homestead.
Lower Macungie Township Historical Society
General mixed farming was the occupation of most of the residents of Lower Macungie Township until the twentieth century. During the twentieth century, potatoes became a very important crop. In addition, the township was known for its large hog and dairy operations, as well as for its apple orchards.
Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society
The Sigal Museum, a Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society site, houses a fascinating collection of colonial era Pennsylvania agricultural and garden tools. Early flails, axes, shovels, and much more remind us of the back-breaking work that was required to settle and create our County. The Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society is also the proud caretaker of the Kressler Garden, a pocket garden with native, pollinator friendly, and specimen plants in downtown Easton. It is located on the north side of the historic Parsons-Taylor House at Fourth and Ferry Streets. It was created in 1968 and dedicated to Kenneth F. Kressler, a city leader in business, politics, education, and civic endeavors. Especially notable is a show-stopping ‘Lord Baltimore’ Hibiscus.
Pearl S. Buck House
Pearl S. Buck, who in 1934 purchased Green Hills Farm, now the Pearl S. Buck House and Estate, was an avid gardener and tended many of the beautiful gardens herself on the 67+ acre property. Ms. Buck’s favorite flower was the camellia and the camellias she grew can still be seen in our greenhouses today, earning the Pearl S. Buck House a spot on the American Camellia Trail. Fourteen separate gardens can be found scattered throughout the estate. Follow the pathway outlined in our self-guided grounds booklet, available to purchase in the Gift Shop, to experience these grounds’ beauty and learn more about the history associated with the farm and its occupants.
Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm
Visit Quiet Valley and experience our agricultural past come to life. Enjoy seasonal tours, historic farm buildings, demonstrations, and family-friendly events at our living history farm that preserves 19th-century Pennsylvania German farming heritage. Quiet Valley also has several gardens and animal enclosures on site for visitors to enjoy.
Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center
Explore a reconstructed 1826 bank barn and exhibits showcasing the tools of production on farms, from plows and apple presses to threshers and winnowing machines at the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center. The centerpiece of the Schultz Farm Life exhibit is an 1825 Conestoga Wagon, showing how farm goods got to market.
Whitehall Historical Preservation Society
Early settlers were first drawn to the Whitehall area for its rich soil and clear flowing water. The Helfrich Springs Grist Mill is “home” to the Whitehall Historical Preservation Society. It is the only one, of 6 mills, that remain in the Township. Although the iron and steel mechanisms within the mill were scrapped for munitions during WWII, a working replica of the mills operation is on display. Across the street is the millers residence reflecting a circa 1840’s era home. On the grounds of the homestead is a beautiful walk through garden you are sure to enjoy.
