There is plenty to love about the Anderson County Museum -- for kids and adults.
Start in the parking lot, where a restored one-room school-house (circa 1886) now sits, having been moved there from another spot in the county. Miss Frierson's School, which still features one of the original desks along with other replicas, gives children a chance to see what classrooms looked like more than 125 years ago.
Plus there is plenty more to see inside the museum.
We stopped by on a Saturday afternoon, thinking we'd be in and out quickly. What we found kept us there more than an hour -- and we could have stayed much longer. The museum includes 13 permanent exhibits, a temporary exhibit gallery and multiple changing exhibits. All programs are free and open to the public.
My kids particularly enjoyed the exhibit on the history of baseball in Anderson County, with a nod to hometown hero and Red Sox great Jim Rice. They also spent time reading about the history of the Anderson County fair, the Rosenwald Schools in South Carolina and learning more about the Upstate's textile mill towns.
Another favorite was the exhibit on World War II, which lets visitors sit in a comfortable armchair and listen to a collection of WWII radio recordings, including Franklin Roosevelt's address to the national after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and news recordings from the D-Day Invasion in France. For kids raised on TV and internet news, the chance to imagine a time when news came to families sitting around a radio was a powerful lesson.
The museum features special programming for kids, including a pre-school session from 10:30 until 11:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. There 2- to 5-year-olds who attend with a caregiver can learn about the exhibits in a way tailored to their age group. There is also a museum store.
Anderson County Museum
