Old Burke County Courthouse and Heritage Museum
Students can learn about the history of Burke County and the sessions of the NC Supreme Court held on this site in the mid-19th century when visiting the Old Burke County Courthouse.
Preview your trip on the web: Old Burke County Courthouse and Heritage Museum
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- Lesson plan: Learn about your county This activity will allow fourth grade students in North Carolina to learn more about the counties that surround their home county. Using online images, students will create a multimedia presentation to share with others.
- You be the Historian Students are able to act as historians and look at clues in the form of photographs of objects left behind by a family from the 1700s. Also, questions guide students to think about what the objects in their own homes say about them. Teachers may print questions about the family from the 1700s and questions for students about the clues in their own homes. Students can write about their own lives and what the objects in their homes reveal about them. Primary source and secondary source materials and the historical process can be explored with this site.
- Lesson plan: Postcards of the Past Students will participate in Heritage Day activities that will enhance students' awareness of their heritage. They will take digital pictures of activities to include on a web page, and research and report on information gathered. Students will create a web page to present their information.
- Lesson plan: Why is the past important? As an introduction to the study of North Carolina's archaeological heritage, students will use personally owned object to share the importance of their past and connect this importance with reasons why the human past is important.
Related pages
- Quaker Meadows Plantation: Tour the plantation of Captain Charles McDowell, Jr. and see what it was like to live in antebellum Burke County.
- The Roanoke Canal Museum and Trail: Now a hiking trail, the Roanoke Canal "shows some of the best preserved early 19th-century canal construction in the nation."
- Asa Biggs House: This house was the home of Asa Biggs, a former U.S. Senator and federal judge prominent in the politics of the day. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places and house the Martin County Travel & Tourism Bureau.
Related topics
- Learn more about 19th century, Burke County, North Carolina, North Carolina Supreme Court, court system, history, history museums, law, and museums.
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The Heritage Museum, located in the Old Burke County Courthouse, houses a permanent exhibit on the history of the Old Courthouse and the courts system, as well as a gallery featuring changing exhibits on different aspects of Burke County history. The permanent exhibit includes information on the North Carolina Supreme Court justices who held summer sessions of the Supreme Court in the Old Courthouse from 1847 to 1862 and contains an area showing what an attorney’s office might have looked like around the turn of the 20th century.
The Old Burke County Courthouse sits on the square bounded by Green, Union, Sterling and Meeting Streets in downtown Morganton. Exit #105 off I-40. Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 am until 4 pm. Contact 828-437-4104.
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