Park View, D.C.

Pierce Mill

If you were looking forward to the Soldiers’ Home Fall Fun Fest last weekend before the weather caused its cancellation, you may want to check out Heritage Day at Pierce Mill which is this Saturday, October 10th. It is scheduled to be a full-day festival that showcases local history, offers activities for kids, and a chance to step back in time to experience 19th century history, culture and milling … and it isn’t that far from the neighborhood.

According to the Friends of Pierce Mill Web site, “Dr. Stonestreet, a 19th-century “primary care physician” embodied by Corky Hickey of the Montgomery County Historical Society, will head up the list of attractions at the mill’s Heritage Day. Dr. S, based on a real Rockville practitioner, will explain the gruesome medical procedures in the good old days before effective anesthesia and antibiotics. Also on that day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: music by local fiddler Kate Saylor and friends, demonstrations of the antique apple press, a blacksmith, stone wall building and a pork roast cooked over an open flame. Food truck will be on site.”

Activities

10:30

• Lost in the Park-hike from the mill with a park ranger and learn mapping skills

11:00-3:00

• Demonstrations in the arts of the blacksmith, stonemason, carpenter and family medicine;
• Learn how to roast a pig and try your hand at working an antique apple press;
• Nature crafts and old-time games for children;
• Music by local fiddler Kate Saylor and friends;
• Mill tours (10:00 on) and corn milling (11:00-2:00)

For information on Peirce Mill’s location & hours: www.nps.gov/pimi