Heritage Hall — Attraction in Madison

Sadly, this home had been so badly restored that it looks more like a Madison lawyer's office than a carefully maintained home from 1811. Obvious air vents, electrical wires, bizarre prints in the "master bedroom." Worse than this, the furniture is neither original, nor is the date consistent throughout. The only original part of the house itself is the flooring and windows.

Worse than this was the woman who toured us on Sunday, January 19th. She was strangely aggressive and knew very little about the house she toured. She clearly had little more knowledge than what she had memorized, and responded to questions with hostility--likely because she could not answer them?

She filled up time with husky jokes and pointing out objects and missed numerous opportunities to flesh out details that would have been interesting to the viewer. At some points she was dead wrong. She has a shocking lack of knowledge about medical history-FOR A WOMAN WHO TOURS A DOCTOR'S HOME. She was discussing medical practices of the Civil War and told the group that germs had not been discovered yet and that no one understood the concept of infection or the importance of sanitation. Since the group was small I pointed out (very politely) that Florence Nightengale worked with the Union army via letters and instructed them on the importance of sanitation and cleanliness. She told me that the Crimean war occurred much later (in a very aggressive manner). However, the Crimean war concluded by 1853. In addition to this, she credited and American female mid wife to first comprehending the connection to washing hands and infant survival. A Male doctor, Ignaz Semmelweiz, discovered this connection in 1846--before the Civil War.

Additionally, I am hearing impaired and needed to ask her to repeat herself. She very disrespectfully did so. She darts around the room, stumbling over you causing you to constantly rearrange yourself so that it is difficult to follow or hear.

On my way out, I asked if I might pass through the downstairs dining room one more time. She responded with a, "if it makes you happy just unlock the dead bolt before you go." She told me to unlock the dead bolt three or four times---Did she expect me to kick the door down? She has other complaints on this thread.

Please, hire someone knowledgeable and polite. I don't expect a lot from these tours--but this was pretty terrible. Anyone who liked this tour and quite frankly the house has likely never been to well a preserved, expertly maintained home with an eye to preserving original structure. If I am in error on this, it is due to the paucity of information given by the guide.

The preserved clothing was very...

Super interesting and informative. The docent was quite entertaining and clearly knew her stuff. You do have to call to set up an appointment for a tour (as of late October 2021) - we showed up the day of without having called ahead but they were able to accommodate us for a tour the same day about an hour later. Docked one star for the sheer disorganization - the tour was interrupted about three times by people who needed to pay for visiting the other houses nearby, which made the tour run about half an hour later than it should have. There is clearly some drama/beef between the docents at heritage hall and the other tour home because there were a ton of passive aggressive remarks made about each other 🤣 but it did make the tour more...

Enjoyed a wonderful tour of this 1811 home. Tours cost $10 and for $5 more you can tour two other homes in the area. We had a really nice docent lead us in a personal tour of the house. We really enjoyed that the story of slavery was a major theme of the tour. For example, I had never heard of a "whispering staircase." Tours last around 35 minutes and parking is easy. We parked a couple blocks away downtown and enjoyed...