Historic Cherry Hill
A 1787 farmhouse lived in by five generations of the Van Rensselaer-Rankin family, with 70,000 original objects still in the house — the largest single-family collection in New York.
Historic Cherry Hill Georgian farmhouse on South Pearl Street
What to expect at Historic Cherry Hill
Cherry Hill is the historian's favorite Albany house museum because nothing was ever thrown out. When the last family member died in 1963, the house passed to a preservation foundation with 70,000 objects still inside — letters, clothes, furniture, kitchen tools — spanning 176 years. The result is a rare unbroken record of ordinary domestic life, plus a genuinely creepy 1827 murder (Elsie Whipple and John Whipple, ask your guide).
Tours are guided only and last about 75 minutes because there's simply that much to look at. The site is small — one house, one carriage barn — so plan around the tour times rather than dropping in. It sits just south of downtown on South Pearl Street; parking is free in the small lot behind the house. This is more rewarding for adults and older kids than for young children; the tour is dense with detail.
Questions about Historic Cherry Hill
$7 adults, $5 seniors and students, free for children under 12.
Free for kids under 12 year-round; occasional community open-house days in May and October are free for all.
About 75 minutes; extended behind-the-scenes tours run 90 minutes.
Closed Sunday-Tuesday and all of January through March.
Recommended — tours are capped at 10 people. Call (518) 434-4791 or book at historiccherryhill.org.
CDTA bus 18 to South Pearl Street & Second Avenue, one block away. Free on-site parking behind the house off McCarty Avenue.
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