Compass Inn opens for summer season
LAUGHINTOWN – Compass Inn is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a museum and recently opened for the summer season. The 90-minute tour of the restored 1799 stagecoach stop is both informative and entertaining and includes the restored inn, reconstructed cookhouse, blacksmith shop and barn.
All of the buildings are authentically furnished with period pieces. The cookhouse features an open-hearth beehive oven combination that is more than 200 years old.
The blacksmith shop has a working forge, and the barn houses a stagecoach and Conestoga wagon complete with a hitch for a six-horse team.
Special weekends are planned throughout the summer.
The first special event is Children’s Weekend, which will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 22-23. Special hands-on activities will be available for children.
Children ages 3 and up can do a simple open-hearth cooking projects, dip candles, churn butter, try their hand at weaving and play early American games.
Living History days are scheduled for the third weekends in July and August (July 20-21 and Aug. 17-18).
History comes alive as skilled craftsmen demonstrate a variety of 18th- and 19th-century skills and crafts.
Participants will have an opportunity to see a blacksmith or bobbin lace maker at work or help dip candles.
They can also watch tape or cloth weaving, woodworking, soap making or open hearth cooking. Crafts vary daily.
The museum is located along Route 30 in Laughlintown, about three miles east of Ligonier.
There is an admission charge for the museum.
For more information about the museum or other activities that will be featured throughout the summer, call 724-238-4983.