Best Western Westminster Hotel, MD:
Attractions

The Farm Museum recreates an era of self-sufficiency. The nineteenth-century farm family worked the land and produced their own food, soap, and clothing. The Farm Museum showcases period antiques, donated by local Carroll County families. The museum includes one hundred and forty acres of grounds displaying early farm instruments. The Farmhouse was built in 1852 and contains six exhibit rooms.

The farm is a working operation with live farm animals. The outbuildings include a smokehouse, a springhouse, blacksmith shop, and wagon shed, and are used to demonstrate life on an 1800's farm. Skilled artisans present traditional arts such as blacksmithing, tinsmithing, spinning, weaving, quilting, and woodcarving. The General Store sells handcrafted items made by these artisans. There is also a one-room schoolhouse on the site.

Civil War encampments and other special events are regularly scheduled. Recreational facilities are available. Open weekends Saturday and Sunday Noon to 5pm - May through October. Open Tuesday through Friday 10 am to 4 pm - July and August.

North on Route 97 1-800-272-1933

The Shriver Homestead was originally established in 1797 by David and Andrew Shriver along Big Pipe Creek. The ambitious brothers built a gristmill and a sawmill and later added a tannery, copper shop and blacksmith's shop. Union Mills' most interesting history occurs during the Civil War. Living at the Homestead, Andrew Shriver and family supported the Union cause. Directly across the road, his brother William Shriver and family supported the Confederate cause. Each family sent sons to the army of their cause. Their children divided the property and those living at the "Homestead" were loyal to the North although owning slaves, and those living across the road, although against slavery, were loyal to the South.

On June 29, 1863, General Stuart's Confederate Cavalry camped there after being delayed in their march through Westminster by the Delaware Calvary stationed there. The family awoke to the sight of horses and soldiers filling the yard and surrounding the house. When asked for his horses, Andrew Shriver replied that he was a Union man, but daughters crying prevented him from being taken prisoner. The hungry soldiers were fed at William’s home across the road. With Herbert Shriver as their guide, the rebel cavalry departed towards Hanover, Pennsylvania. Shortly after the Confederate cavalry left, the Union soldiers arrived and camped in the surrounding fields and the division commander made the Andrew Shriver's house his headquarters. The Union soldiers also departed for Gettysburg. The windows rattled from the cannons of the Battle of Gettysburg as the family awaited the outcome.

Today the mill is still in operation; grinding rye, whole wheat, buckwheat and cornmeal flours, which are available for purchase at the site.  The Union Mills Homestead is located seven miles north of Westminster on Route 97. Open from June through August, Tuesday to Friday, 10 am to 4 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 pm. From September to May, it is open weekends from noon to 4pm.