Visit the Compass Inn to receive an informative
and entertaining tour by costumed docents that tells the story
of transportation and everyday life in the early 1800's. The tour
delivers "history with a smile" by incorporating agenerous
sprinkling of etymology (word and phrase origins). For example
you can learn why we drink in “bars” and “toast” people.
 The restored Inn is completely furnished with
period pieces. Visitors can tour seven rooms including the common
room, serving kitchen, ladies parlor and four bedrooms. Staying
in a hotel was very different in 1820 than it is today. You have
to see it to appreciate it.
The 1-1/2 hour tour includes the original
Inn, and three reconstructed outbuildings: a cookhouse, blacksmith
shop and barn, all completely furnished with period pieces.
(Click on pictures to view a larger image)
The Barn
 The
barn features an authentic stagecoach and a Conestoga wagon,
complete with a six-horse hitch. Both vehicles were important
to history in America, but in very different ways. Discover
what it was like to travel in a stagecoach and learn the role
it played in fostering communication across this large nation.
 Most
people have heard of Conestoga wagons, but few really understand
their function. At Compass Inn, you will learn what the Conestoga
was actually used for and dispel some of the myths surrounding
it. Learn why Americans drive on the right side of the road
when most of our other habits reflect English traditions.
 The Blacksmith Shop
Having the services of a blacksmith available on site made Compass
Inn a more attractive
place to stay. If your wagon broke down or your horse threw a
shoe, you brought it the blacksmith. He could fix it for you while
you were enjoying the comforts of the Inn. Compass Inn’s blacksmith
shop is fully functional with a big two chambered bellows, working
forge, two anvils and the myriads of tools the blacksmith used
in his trade as well as some of the tools he could make and repair
for the public.
Most people think of blacksmiths as men who shoe horses. Actually that
specialty belonged to the “farrier” and full service blacksmiths
often frowned on farrier work. However, Compass Inn catered to
the traveling public, so our shop is fully equipped with farrier
tools and a stock cradle for supporting the animals when they
were being shoed.
The Cookhouse
 The
cookhouse is a reconstructed building, but old materials were
used when available. For example the open hearth/beehive oven
arrangement was trans-ferred here from the Shaffer farm just a
couple miles away and dates back to the 1700’s. It is still functional
and is used during living history weekends and some school tours.
See some of the pots and utensils the women used to prepare meals
over an open hearth and learn how they baked bread in the beehive
oven. Discover why wealthy people are sometimes called the “upper
crust”. |
The
cookhouse is a reconstructed building, but old materials were
used when available. For example the open hearth/beehive oven
arrangement was trans-ferred here from the Shaffer farm just a
couple miles away and dates back to the 1700’s. It is still functional
and is used during living history weekends and some school tours.
See some of the pots and utensils the women used to prepare meals
over an open hearth and learn how they baked bread in the beehive
oven. Discover why wealthy people are sometimes called the “upper
crust”.
