Winston Salem, NC
Arts center named after Frank L. Horton housing various museums and a research facility relevant to Old Salem.
Named after a prominent director of Old Salem who contributed much to the preservation of the town's history and located on South Main Street, Winston-Salem, the Horton Museum Center houses two museums connected to the site at Old Salem, The Old Salem Children's Museum and the Old Salem Museums and Gardens Research Center and Library. The MESDA auditorium is also located on site.
The Old Salem Toy Museum presents a broader history of toys, spanning from Ancient Roman London, to miniature firearms from 16th and 17th century central Europe, Moravian artifacts from Salem itself to model airplanes from 1925. Many of the local specimens can be attributed to their original owner, having been imported to Wachovia or produced by local craftsmen.
MESDA is the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, open since 1965. Founded by Frank L. Horton and his mother Theo Taliafero, the contents of the Museum span from the late 17th Century to the early 19th century, filling twelve galleries. Artifacts which include furniture, paintings, textiles, firearms and ceramics were gathered from Shenandoah Valley, Virginia to Kentucky and Tennessee then south through the Carolinas and Georgia and a tour of the museum is a 50 minute diversion available constantly throughout the day.
With an emphasis on interactivity, the Old Salem Children's Museum includes reveals the 18th century for younger visitors. Specifically targeted for children aged four to nine, it includes a miniature Old Salem house, a joiner's shop, a climbing sculpture, the opportunity to dress up in period clothing and a child sized maze. Visitors saw it as a pleasant contrast to the formality of the adjacent toy museum.
Much of the information gleaned to provide visitors with an insight to the workings of Old Salem during the 18th and 19th centuries comes from original records, meticulously kept by the town's Moravian settlers. Comprising more than 75,000 files, these records are kept in the site's Research Center with more than 20,000 rare books and other ephemera relating to the early south.
The Center also offers meeting spaces. The MESDA Auditorium holds 90 people and is equipped for lectures, conferences or receptions, as is the smaller MESDA Classroom. The Rotunda can also be rented. Outside, available spaces include the Courtyard and the Loggia.
The Horton Museum Center Store offers relevant books on arts and furniture making whilst both MESDA and the Toy Museum offer souvenir shops.
