Qualla: Heritage Farm Museum and Village

Heritage Farm Museum and Village: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rlely777, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mike and Henriella Perry moved out of Huntington in 1973 for a farmhouse on the edge of town. While doing renovation work they noticed something unexpected: the wooden logs in the walls of their house. The Perrys started asking questions. What kind of logs were these? How had a cabin like this been built? What tools had been used? They began collecting answers, and tools, and then whole old cabins from elsewhere in West Virginia. Half a century later, what started as a curiosity has become Heritage Farm Museum and Village - an open-air living history museum that became West Virginia's first Smithsonian-affiliated museum, with seven main museum buildings, a working petting zoo with a camel, and reassembled cabins where visitors can sleep.

Image: Rlely777 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Heritage Farm Museum and Village: From Antiquing to Museum

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rlely777, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Perrys started as antiquers - the hobby that combines collecting, restoring, and learning about old American material culture. Their interest in their own farmhouse logs expanded outward into broader Appalachian craftsmanship. They began accumulating authentic old structures ...

Image: Rlely777 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Heritage Farm Museum and Village: Seven Museums Under One Sky

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeo1989, CC BY-SA 4.0. Heritage Farm has seven main museum buildings, each focused on a different aspect of Appalachian life. The Country Store displays the merchandise and rhythms of a rural store at the turn of the twentieth century. The Doll and Toy Museum displays the playthings that filled rural A...

Image: Zeo1989 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Heritage Farm Museum and Village: Sleeping in History

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeo1989, CC BY-SA 4.0. Visitors can rent buildings to sleep in. The Strawberry Inn, the first cabin reassembled at the farm, is built from nineteenth-century logs gathered from various cabins throughout Cabell and Wayne counties in West Virginia. The Blackberry Inn started as a cabin from Lavalette, We...

Image: Zeo1989 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Heritage Farm Museum and Village: The Camel and the Llamas

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeo1989, CC BY-SA 4.0. The petting zoo at Heritage Farm operates on festival days and through the summer. Standard farm animals - goats, pigs, sheep, miniature horses, rabbits - are joined by livestock not typically associated with Appalachian agriculture. The peacocks make spectacular noise. The llama...

Image: Zeo1989 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Heritage Farm Museum and Village: Television Visitors

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rlely777, CC BY-SA 4.0. Heritage Farm has accumulated a small filmography. The History Channel filmed America's Greatest Feud: The History of the Hatfields & McCoys on location at the village in 2012, taking advantage of the authentic period buildings as backdrops for the documentary about the legendary...

Image: Rlely777 | CC BY-SA 4.0