Schools & Group Visits
Planning a visit for a school, historical organization, senior group, music group, club or extended family? HHAHS offers guided group experiences by arrangement, with special rates for school groups — tell us about your group, and we will help plan the visit.
- Open
- Sundays, 1–4 p.m.
May through September - Where
- 105 Fairview St.
Hanover, MI - Collection
- Nearly 100 reed organs
and melodeons
A tour shaped around your group.
Every group tour is guided by HHAHS volunteers who know the collection — and the community — inside and out. Tell us who is coming and what you are curious about, and we will shape the visit to match.
Depending on the season and your group’s interests, a visit can include the organs played by trained volunteers, local history displays, time in the restored schoolhouse classroom, and Heritage Park with its historical demonstration buildings and working crop farm.
Tours are by appointment year round and may be scheduled outside the regular Sunday museum hours. Family tours are about $25, and groups of 10 or more are $10 per person, with special rates for school groups. Contact the office to book.
Groups we welcome
- Schools and student groups
- Historical organizations
- Senior groups
- Music groups and enthusiasts
- Clubs and community organizations
- Extended families and reunions
What happens on a group tour.
A group visit to the museum comes in four parts: a short talk, a demonstration, a turn at the organs for your guests, and a guided tour of the exhibits.
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A short talk
The tour opens with a short talk about the reed organs.
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A demonstration
Then comes a demonstration, played on the different organs.
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Your turn to play
Guests are invited to play, and to try the special footwork a reed organ takes.
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The exhibits and the classroom
After that comes a guided tour of all the museum exhibits and the classroom that represents the old one-room schoolhouse.
- Allow 1.5 hours
- That is how long to set aside for the museum tour.
- Lunch at the Event Center
- Lunch can be arranged at the Heritage Park Event Center, at additional cost and with an advance reservation.
- Wagon rides
- Wagon rides around the 82-acre Heritage Park can be arranged in advance.
- Accessibility
- The buildings and restrooms are wheelchair accessible, except for the second floor of the museum.
History that students can see and feel.
Throughout the year the society offers students a bridge to the past, so they can learn how their ancestors lived and how their own lives are very different from those days and yet, in some ways, very much the same.
The museum is full of things from the past that children can see and feel, with displays and activities that make learning history more interesting. Outside there is old-fashioned farming equipment and a working sugar shack.
We help meet the needs of teachers in many different ways. Tell us what your class is studying when you request a visit.
How schools have worked with us
- At the museum Kindergarten
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Kindergarteners have visited the museum to learn about the organs, the old-time classroom, and the 1957 fire truck and other antique fire apparatus.
- At the museum Fourth grade
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The fourth-grade classes from Hanover-Horton Elementary School visit the museum in the spring, in preparation for reports on changes in technology. They learn about the advancement of the telephone and investigate the camera collection and flash bulbs, working from the oldest kinds to the ones in use today.
The students also try their hands, and feet, at the antique reed organs and learn the history of the organs.
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The telephone, oldest to newest
- The area’s original switchboard
- Rotary dial phones
- The cell phones of today
The cameras they compare
- Very old shutter cameras
- Kodak Brownies
- Polaroid cameras
- 35mm cameras
- The modern cell phone camera
- At the sugar shack Kindergarten to fifth grade
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Children at the adjoining Hanover-Horton Elementary School have learned the history and the methods of maple sugaring, and how maple syrup is made. They have had the chance to visit the sugar shack, help gather sap and watch the syrup being made.
Three retired elementary teachers developed the program, with a version for each grade level from kindergarten through fifth grade.
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As many as 500 elementary students attend the program each year.
- In your classroom Artifacts and lessons
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Society members can also come to you, bringing artifacts into the classroom or teaching a lesson about the past.
- At the Learning Fair Hands-on exhibits
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The society takes part in the area Learning Fair with hands-on exhibits.
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Exhibits have included
- A 1900 classroom
- An old-fashioned laundry
- An antique pump organ
- A kiddie tractor pull
- Old-fashioned toys such as stilts, tops, comb kazoos, marbles and button whizzers
Tell us about your group.
Share a few details about your group and your preferred dates. A member of the HHAHS team will follow up to help plan the visit.
Prefer to plan by phone?
The office is glad to help you choose a date and think through the details — how long you have, how far people can walk, what your group most wants to see.
- Call
- 517-563-8927
- office@hhahs.org
- Office hours
- Tuesday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
- Tours
- Tours by appointment year round
Before you send the form
- Tell us about accessibility needs in the form and we will plan around them.
- Lunch at the Heritage Park Event Center and wagon rides around the park are arranged in advance. Mention either one in the notes field.
- Visiting on your own instead? Plan a regular Sunday visit.