Historic Walking & House Tours
Virtual programs available!
Exploring Communities, Grades 2 & 3
1.5 hours
Your guide will lead your students through downtown Troy to show what makes Troy an urban environment. Program focuses on downtown’s unique buildings, the role the play in forming our community, and how urban, suburban and rural communities support one another.
Common Core Connection
Back at the museum, students build on the research they gathered through visual observation to present knowledge through oral and written communication.
Abolition & Escape, Grades 4-8
1.5 hours
The story of slavery and abolition comes to life as students visit sites in downtown Troy associated with the fight to end slavery in the United States. Excerpts from historical texts, such as newspapers and speeches, are interwoven into the tour. At the site of the rescue of escaped slave Charles Nalle, students take part in a readers’ theater, that tells the history of this event while raising the question of civil disobedience in relation to the Fugitive Slave Law.
Common Core Connection
Students respond to historical texts, and create personal responses to the theme of abolition.
One House, Many Stories, Grades 4-8
1.5 hours for tour only; 3 hours for tour + workshop
The date is January 25, 1850, and the residents of 59 Second Street are getting ready for a big party. Readers’ theater and object- handling opportunities engage students in the lives of owners and immigrant servants who lived and worked in this beautiful 19th century home. Students will learn reasons immigrants came to Troy and see for themselves how technological change has impacted daily life. A post-tour document analysis workshop features archival materials directly related to the skits that students enact in the Hart-Cluett House. The workshop can be completed at your school or at RCHS.
Common Core Connection
Students recall information gathered on the tour and integrate knowledge to answer questions.