Charlotte Museum of History

Thoroughly enjoyed the docent tour of the 1774 Rock House and impressed by the restoration of the Siloam School! Interesting rotating exhibits and events. The Museum is also a great meeting / event venue!

Went here for the Bridgerton Ball and it was great! Easy to park, we didn’t wait too long, and there were plenty of interesting nooks and crannies. I would love to come back and have a museum day here. Katy Werlin is the artist who made these incredible historical gowns.

The Charlotte Museum of History was a really cool surprise, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I went with some family visiting from out of town and we all ended up spending way more time there than planned. The exhibits are well done and the staff was super knowledgeable, especially during the tour of the old Hezeiah Alexander house. You can tell they really care about preserving local history. It’s a great way to learn more about Charlotte’s roots, and honestly I’d go back again just to catch the parts I missed the first time.

If you are a history buff, this is a must see location. Well orchestrated self guided tour using your smartphone. Reasonably priced. Well maintained. Very nice and enthusiastic staff.

Great exhibits and interesting information. Staff was incredibly nice

The Charlotte Museum of History in Eastern Charlotte was a great learning experience about the history of Charlotte and the state of North Carolina. You can allocate 2 hours to the museum, if you want to explore everything in detail. Their last admission is at 4pm every day when they’re open, so be mindful of that. There are mainly two sections to the museum—the first part is the outside where you can find the Hezekiah Alexander’s Rock House, the kitchen, and the spring house, including a few other structures. I appreciated that over the years, the museum has tried to maintain the originality of the structures both from outside as well as inside. The Rock House is the oldest building in the Mecklenburg County! I didn’t know that. It’s an easy walk to explore all the areas outside. There’s the freedom bell too which makes for a good photo spot. There’s a bit of history to the bell as well. The inside of the museum is spread across two floors with the lower floor having pictures related to Charlotte history over the years, an auditorium(for events I presume), and other significant artifacts and dioramas showcasing the events and people that shaped Charlotte. The second floor had a cartoon exhibit, and a section called “Charlotte Gems” which showcased the important people in Charlotte’s history. It was an enriching experience to learn about both. Cartooning indeed can be quite powerful drawing inspiration from the world affairs, and in turn influencing the masses it reaches to. The exhibit shed light on the prominent cartoon artists of Charlotte. I wish there was more information in the museum about the slaves and the Native American people who shaped Charlotte, but the information is scant, not because it’s the museum’s fault, but there’s literally scant information available about them. For instance, the information about the slaves is only available through the writings of Hezekiah, who owned them. As accurate as those writings may be, they still cannot completely capture their lives. The museum continues to try and uncover new information about Charlotte’s history, which is wonderful. Overall, I highly recommend the museum in case you’re a history buff like me, and even if you aren’t, you still can find something of interest here. The staff is polite, and does their best to help. There’s a discount available for students, seniors and children. In case you want to do a rock house tour, that’s available too for an additional fee. Check out their website for the latest prices. We visited on a Saturday afternoon, and the museum wasn’t busy. There’s a big parking lot outside, so parking shouldn’t be a problem.

We had a great experience at Charlotte Museum of History (specifically their private guided tours/field trips). We went there for a homeschool field trip, and we were blown away! Their Education manager, Mea Agazio, was PHENOMENAL. It was the best hands on, age appropriate field trip we've ever been to. We asked her to target it to K-3 grade and she knocked it out of the park. The kids learned a ton! In addition to touring the grounds and house, they got to see inside the secret drawers of the desk in the study, hold that time period's version of spoons (made from gourds and tusks), card and spin wool, do a dying wool matching activity, play with toys from the time period, do an herb scavenger hunt in the garden where they learned what each herb was used for, and complete a matching activity for different meals from that time period and what country/culture influenced those meals. Then they had some crafts and coloring pages at the end, too. We actually didn't end up doing much inside the museum itself (we ran out of time and had to get home), but the 2-2.5 hour field trip was so well done!

The museum is very nice and clean. I thought the staff was very friendly and personable. Although I loved the items and information inside, I feel it needs to be expanded a bit more. I also would have loved a more in-depth look inside the historic buildings. Whether it be through photographs or specific windows to look inside. Hopefully, that gets added in the future. Overall, it was a quiet and nice experience. It has a lot of potential. They do offer military discounts to active duty members, which is nice.