Oak Hill & the Martha Berry Museum will host a free Community Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17 to celebrate the last week of its holiday season.
“Community Days are some of my favorite events at Oak Hill,” says Mackenna Johnson, a museum staff member and Berry College student. “We love having so many different people at the museum and sharing Berry stories with them.”
The event will include free admission and all-day access to the Oak Hill home and The Martha Berry Museum.
While taking in festive decorations from the Victorian era, guests will enjoy live music in the mansion’s parlor performed by local and Berry community members and learn about the holiday traditions Martha Berry would have experienced as a child. Guests will also be able to participate in some of those traditions by creating Victorian-style Christmas ornaments and enjoying readings of Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 classic The Night Before Christmas at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. in the Oak Hill library. For even more holiday spirit after touring the estate, guests can explore the “Gift of Christmas” exhibit featured in the Martha Berry Museum and pick up some gifts at the Oak Hill Gift Shop.
The Oak Hill home, built in the 1880s, is the Greek Revival mansion of Martha Berry, founder of Berry College. Oak Hill was the childhood home of Berry and later became her adult residence, altered to her personal taste. Oak Hill was gifted by Berry to the schools and remains intact as she left it in the 1930s.
The museum has multiple galleries including the permanent exhibition “The Berry College Timeline Exhibition.” This exhibition tells the history of The Berry Schools’ development from a small sunday school in a small cabin to a four-year liberal arts college. The estate also features the original cabin, award-winning gardens, the Walkway of Life and additional trails and the Christopher Browning Pavilion.
Need more information? Contact the Martha Berry Museum at 706-368-6789 or oakhill@berry.edu and visit www.berry.edu/oakhill. Oak Hill & The Martha Berry Museum, part of Berry College, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
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