Field Trips for School Groups

Visit the Rooms Where Raleigh Was Born!

On a field trip, students from public, private, and home schools learn about Colonel Joel Lane and how life was different in the 1700’s. There are two homes to visit: a one-room house dating from about 1790 as well as the “big house” built by Joel Lane in 1769. Time permitting, students may participate in hands-on history after a tour of the site.

Please allow one hour at the site for the richest experience for your students. The length of tours ranges from 20 to 45 minutes depending on the children’s ages. The balance of the hour is spent on hands-on history. In the latter, students are offered an opportunity to touch and interact with reproduction artifacts. For example, they may carry water with a yoke and wooden buckets or watch fire made with flint and steel. Click on the In-School Presentations tab for more details about Hands-on History.

Tours for students meet the North Carolina social studies standards for 4th grade social studies: 4.H.1.3 Explain how people, events and developments brought about changes to communities in various regions of NC and 4.H.2.1 Explain why important buildings, statues, monuments, and place names are associated with the state’s history.

The Standard Tour highlights the home of Joel Lane built in 1769. It also includes a visit to the gardens—the formal garden and the herb garden—where students learn how plants substituted for the drug store, hardware store, and grocery store. Youngsters are delighted when they enter the “Kitchen” building which was actually a one-room-plus-sleeping-loft home for an entire family. After that experience, when they enter Joel Lane’s “manor plantation house” as he called it, they realize that, though to many children it appears modest from the outside by today’s standards, it was quite palatial by 18th-century standards.

Other specialized tours are suitable for older students. The Human Geography tour’s objective is to view and interpret the Joel Lane Museum House from the perspective of both its geographical location and the combined use of space and function with regards to its design and use. The objective of the tour interpreting the role of Enslaved People who lived on Lane’s plantation is to view and interpret the JLMH from the perspective of the enslaved people who worked and lived on the property.

A site visit is particularly relevant for 3rd graders who study local history, 4th graders who study North Carolina history, 8th graders studying NC history, and high school students studying American history. Any age group, from kindergarten through college, will benefit from a visit. We tailor presentations based on the age of the students.

For public, charter, and private schools, admission is $1.00 per student; no charge for chaperones up to two per class. Additional adults are charged $1 each.This special price is available to school groups only. 
For home school groups, admission is $1 per PERSON, including adults, excluding those ages 4 and under who are admitted free. We have to schedule docents based on the number of people in your group, not just the number of children. 
For other groups, admission is $4.00 per child and $8.00 for adults.

For all groups, advanced reservations are required.

No more than 60 people including adults can be accommodated on the site in any one hour.
Complete Teacher Packet Available by Email after Tour is Confirmed
To see the introduction and table of contents of the teacher packet, please click on the link below:
Teacher_Workbk_Intro.pdf