Willamette Heritage Center

Lovely Christmas lights, history, and charm for the holiday. Great market, carrolers, and tour guides in period costumes. Great blacksmith and nice tour of the mill, and charming historic campus with Mill Creek running through it.

How had I never heard of this place?! It would be perfect for a school field trip, and it is a lovely venue for a reception or banquet. Walking through the mill gave me a chance to appreciate all the woven things we take for granted. And it was so cool to see how it all depended on water flowing through the canal and making a giant shaft turn. Perhaps we went on a slow day, but it seemed rather empty for having so much to offer. The café had guests and smelled amazing. The food I mean, though I'm sure the guests smelled nice, too. I didn’t grow up in Oregon, so visiting the historical buildings and reading all about Oregon's state history and learning at least some about the native groups was fascinating.

We reserved the Dye house for a birthday party, about 45 attending. Cute venue, staff was super responsive and helpful to all questions and needs. Tech worked well (although it doesn't work with Macs- but we knew in advance and made other arrangements).

As a young adult 🤸 , I'd attended several 💀 Halloween 🎃 parties👻 there, upstairs in the large mill.🐑 Then for many years my mother 🧑‍🍼was a long time ⏳member of the "Capitol Quilters" club. 🧵These ladies 🧓 made some prize 🎖️winning beautiful quilts🪡 that went to... Well, I don't remember where they went, but I'm sure whomever got them loved them 💕

This venue is always well kept. It's enchanting with the water ways and the beautiful scenery. Especially love the historic buildings that have been added. Keep Salem history alive!

This is an excellent hands-on museum for kids and teens to explore. There are several historic buildings that show the history of early Oregon missionaries and settlers in the area. And then there is the mill structures, such as the machine shop & the picker house, that show you all of the steps involved in the process of creating fabric from wool. Frequently there are people using looms on the fourth floor of the Mill building, weaving fabric while you watch, who can answer all of your questions. Our children from elementary age up to college students were all fully engaged and loved exploring this place thoroughly. We suggest giving yourself at least two hours to see most of things here. The gift shops are also well worth seeing. Note: As Historic buildings, not all of these areas are fully wheelchair or stroller accessible. There’s also some uneven flooring and ground throughout.

So friendly! Lots of activities and a great way to learn about something old that you can do today.

We recently took a tour with Heather, and she was an absolute delight. Really cool place to spend your afternoon in Salem with history displays that are very interesting and inclusive. The staff clearly loves this place and Heather made our tour extra special!

Very interesting place but some of the exhibits need more information. We had several questions brought up by the displays- some we could lookup online but others - like the piece of tree in the visitors center that poses the question how old is it based on the rings was left unanswered We learned it's non profit so I'm sure funding and volunteers might be hard to come by If the green light is lit when you are in the main building definitely check out the floor that has people weaving - it was neat to see it in action Would also be nice if all volunteers were trained equally - a tour hide we encountered was lacking answers to our questions but other volunteers passing us heard us and stopped and took time with us which was super nice I hope they can improve and expand because it was so historical and interesting

I enjoyed my visit and I learned some things but it wasn't my favorite museum. The cafe looked great, though, and the gift shop had lovely products including Pendelton.

Such a beautiful place to have events! We love working there! Traci and Lesli Just us Girls Mobile Bartending

We had our wedding here this year (spinning room) and it was the perfect location! Loved their pricing and flexibility. Heather, the events manager, was great to work with and was helpful whenever needed. The only sucky part was I wish we had tested the audio better during rehearsal. It ended up bending super crappy day of and unfortunately their event staff day of didn't know how to work it either. So if possible get them to update it! Otherwise loved having our wedding here, it was a beautiful location. :)

Been to museums all over this country of ours, and on my visit to Willamette Heritage Center, I tried to just enjoy it for what it is and keep things in perspective. This is a very sincere effort to represent local history, run by dedicated volunteers. I didn't expect it to be the Met, and honestly, I enjoyed it very much. Great care has clearly been taken to tell the very interesting stories of the many ethnic groups that weave together the story of Salem and surrounding areas, touching on migration, original land inhabitants, settlers, the Oregon Trail, and the long history of the Methodist movement in this area. Some of the stories are told with unflinching honesty of how things were, and I came away from this visit still thinking about some of these people's hardships and triumphs, with an overall positive message of the resilience of the human spirit. Inside the several small buildings that make up the museum facilities are storyboards filled with tons of historic detail. In fact, there was so much more than I could absorb in one visit, I will return to give them the attention they deserve, when I do not have a visitor with me or anyone to make me feel rushed. The little video at the beginning of the self-guided tour was interesting. I like that they give you a key to unlock the buildings yourself and move at your own pace, and blessedly--as we visited on a Tuesday afternoon--no one else crammed in on top of us in the small buildings, and we had each building to ourselves. The larger mill building is filled with several floors of interesting equipment, and there was also an exhibit of lost historic buildings of Salem, plus a small pop-up display. We were also able to see the weavers in action upstairs and excited to learn that they will be having a sale of their goods this fall (elsewhere; see the museum website for more info). I understand that at 11 am on Fridays, a docent leads a tour of the museum grounds, but as I am a working stiff, I would be hard-pressed to get away from work to attend that on a Friday. Wish they also had that on a Saturday. The museum is closed on Sundays but the grounds are open, and that very nice Pendelton store is open on Sundays along with other shops inside the main building. There's also a cafe on-site inside the main building, and plenty of free parking. Overall an interesting visit and worth the small fee, and i'm looking forward to returning soon.

My spouse and I took a drive to Salem one day with no agenda and no idea what to do. TripAdvisor suggested this museum so we checked it out. We love history and ended up really enjoying our visit here. It was perfect during pandemic as the was self-guided and they had it well set up for physical distancing. In the factory part of the tour, you could push buttons to turn action on and there were even QR codes you could scan to watch videos and get more information about the exhibit you were viewing. I definitely recommend this for a visit if you're a history buff or for a fun educational outing with the kiddos!

This was amazing! There is so much to look at and learn. It was interactive and interesting.

This was a fun museum to visit. We just moved to Oregon and wanted to learn more about the state, this was perfect. We learned so much, it was a fantastic experience!

This is a really unique and interesting museum. I could have spent a day in the museum, but I only had a few hours. There are several houses, a church, different outbuildings to the mill and the mill itself to visit, so there is a lot of ground to cover. The amount of reading material is almost overwhelming, but I would love to read ALL of it some day. If you don't really care much about reading and you really just want to see the cool antiques and mill equipment, you won't need more than an hour or two. However, if you want to read all the history, you will need much more time. It was very interesting to me to learn about the small community that formed around the textile mill, including at least one accounting of a slave that was freed, but returned to her owner. I look forward to visiting Salem again and spending more time at this great museum.

Really enjoyed our self guided tour of the mill and surrounding buildings on the property. It was a very warm day and they allowed us the bring our dog as long as we did not take her in the buildings. The staff was very knowledgeable and nice. Would recommend this outstanding tour

What an awesome place to visit. Found it as part of our search of places to visit to learn Oregon History for our 4th grade homeschool curriculum. The self guided tour was very unique with us having our own key to all the buildings to visit. So many cool, hands-on opportunities for kids to explore the past. We have all learned so much and it is such a pleasant location to spend your time in. We even got to feed the ducks.

Haven't been there since I was 15. It was worth it. For people like me with a sense of history and heritage, it is a fascinating look at what was, because only in understanding our past can we prepare for the future. My only complaint is that many functions carry on simultaneously occur, but it's minor in the grand scheme of things. The various shops have fascinating merchandise, and the overall experience was greatly positive.

SO sister slay. They popped off on this one. Ate and left no crumbs- high-key impressed.

We had our wedding reception here and it worked out well. Staff is friendly and always ready to help. The rules are pretty relaxed compared to most venues; you can use whatever caterer you want (unfortunate in our case since the caterer we picked was awful!), they're pretty chill about decorations, check in and check out time, etc. We used the smaller Dye Center and it was plenty of room for our 55 or so people. They set up all the chairs and tables to your liking and put them away so it's nice not having to have to worry about that part. It's a nice place for an event because there's some nice outdoor space for guests to wander about, the creek running through, and even ducks to feed. Good spot for your next party.

This venue is good, and it's in a good location. There is history here, and you feel it. However, at the same time, it can feel outdated if the event decor is not dialed in.

Great cluster of historical buildings and an old wool mill. The top floor space is rented out for events such as the regional GS awards ceremony we attended as our daughter earned her gold star. Just don't drink the water. Seriously, there is a safety warning for toxicity.

Love this place for weddings. The vintage barn decor and gorgeous water outside is picture perfect.

They do a great job maintaining historic cites and materials. It is also a great venue for events.

We had my daughters wedding reception there, such a beautiful place, staff was great and very accommodating, super easy to work with. Thank you

This is a wonderful museum, really top quality. Also loved the shops and cafe, where I had a tasty and healthy lunch. It's a good place to learn about Oregon history.