MUSEUM EVENTS

Note: Visit the Base Ball Season pages for our "House of David Echoes" schedule.

SEPTEMBER 27, "Welcome Back to 1934" Vegetarian Luncheon

On our summer season's closing day we will host our only historic meal presentation for 2009 beginning at Noon.

The meal will feature a common menu from our collectible 1934 Vegetarian Cookbook with fruits and vegetables in season and the famous colony product for over 60 years, the "mock steak deluxe" sandwich. The meal is $14.95 which will include a free pass to the museum that opens at 1 PM.

It is recommended that you reserve space on the guided walking tour. Spaces can fill-up quickly, as the walking tours are also open to the general public, and available on a first-come-first-served basis. The walking tour begins from the museum at 1:30 PM and is available for an additional $4.00.

RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED with a pre-payment to secure your seat(s): $14.95 per person – your meal along with a free pass to the museum.

For reservations or for more information, please call:

(269) 925-1601 M-F; 1-5 PM.

Mary's City of David Tours

Using an aerial from 1937, the picture captures the first seven years labor in the earliest and most desperate hours of the Great Depression, in which most of the "City of David" was built under Sister Mary Purnell's direction. This serves today as both the nucleus of the 300-plus acre Christian-Israelite community and the entire tour area of significant historic sites that help tell this fascinating story of faithful perseverance and spirited resilience yielding the most amazing chapter of all the 100+ years in America.

1. Museum and Gift shop. Arrival and departure points.
    
2. Bethany where is given the slide presentation on the English roots to the present day, covering 3 ½ centuries. Print shop is also at this location.
    
3. Going through the Garage Bldg. (1930) with its active mechanic shop and 1930s tools. Shop rules that have worked for 100 years: "if you make a mess, clean it up"; "if you don't know how to operate, leave it alone"; " if you open it, close it."
    
4. Walking over to the Carpenter shop, with its vintage tools and today's sawdust.
    
5. Cannery and Powerhouse with the 1934 Fair Banks Morris Electrical generating plant. A lesson in self-sufficiency of a family in common faith. Common sense ...
    
6. Greenhouse Agriculture bldg. A lesson in recycling from the "have-tos" of 1935.
    
7. Mary's House, a walk through the yard of this structure that served as a makeshift headquarters in 1930, as well as a hotel and basement restaurant.
    
8. Shiloh gardens tell their intimate story of the new 1930 Administration and plantations of over 50 years in garden.
    
9. "Gate of Prayer" Synagogue, 1938 (not in this 1937 photo) where the "Welcome Back To 1934" vegetarian luncheons are held in this quaintly restored building.
    
10. Eastman Springs nature trails that are on 54 acres of woodland serenity. 1-½ miles of trails and bridges that wind through spring fed ravines that attracted Native American populations for over 4,000 years. The Silver Queen Spring (1883) is on the walk for a cooler on a warm summer day.
     
11. Colonel Harry and Elizabeth Eastman Field (1890s) today is the home field for the "vintage" House of David Echoes Baseball Club, playing pre-Civil War rules and members of the 120-plus Baseball Association in America.

General Public Museum Hours:
Saturdays & Sundays: 1-5 PM, May 30^th - September 27^th

If you have not visited the colony in several years, or have not yet visited, we strongly recommend that you take some quality time with friends and family this summer and come out for an afternoon to view an historic "vintage" base ball game, hike the 1 ½ miles trails through the serene and lovely Eastman Springs, visit the museum and see 355 years of history, get on board for the 1:30 PM tour each Saturday and Sunday to discover the amazing history of southwest Michigan's most renown historic site and "living history", and come to see the unique, one-of-a-kind gift shop next door to the museum; you won't find this inventory anywhere else in Michigan, America or the world.

Please refer back to this page for up-dates and further information, or call (269) 925-1601, Mon. thru Fri. 1-5 PM.