Duke Homestead — Attraction in Durham

Even though I'm against tobacco, it doesn't erase the history. I went with my 5-year old son on an "off-day" where there seemed to be no other visitors besides ourselves. I HIGHLY recommend going on an off-day. We asked for a tour and we got one, and since we were the only ones on the tour we went at our own speed. I was able to summarize for my son, ask questions, and he got to prepare some tobacco (his favorite part according to him). I was also able to teach him about stuff that was not part of the tour, such as explaining the items found around the restored home, the way they had no air conditioning and what they did, and other bits that helped him understand the different life they lived. This is important since the buildings are locked when not on a tour.

The tobacco museum is not one of those small "museums" but rather a sophisticated museum and showcase of tobacco through the ages. It's huge. It has animatronics, voice over talks explaining machinery, and interactive everything. You could easily spend an hour there casually letting the museum teach you.

It's all free. Bathrooms, water, no smoking (!), lots of...

It was a really good place to learn about early tobacco farming in the Raleigh/ Durham area in the early days and founding of our country. My only issues with the place was there was almost no reference to when filters were added to cigarettes and how that impacted the cigarette industry.

There was also a board on the wall with hand written notes from visitors of the museum and homestead complaining of how this place was "glorifying" the cigarette/ tobacco industry.

Um hello, this country was founded/ established itself on the tobacco industry and this is merely a look into how it came to be. At no point in the museum did it ever mention how great tobacco is/was, there was even several plaques that discussed when doctor's and even the surgeon General declared smoking as bad for people's health. People leaving the notes obviously missed the point of the museum, and it adds nothing to it by posting these notes in the museum. If I was the curator/ director, I'd remove them from public eye. I think it's safe to say that everyone knows how bad smoking and...

This was a very cool experience that has a lot of history for the Durham area. I went as a chaperone for my daughters second grade class and our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, professional and patient. Which any parent knows is not East with a bunch of second graders. They did a good job also getting the kids involved with different things to participate in like “milking” a cow, churning butter, and trying on clothes. My daughter and her friends had...