the willamette heritage center at the mill

Love this event and glad it was a success. Bobby's presentation was engaging, inspiring and entertaining.

Lot of interesting stuff from salem's past, Lot of walking involved plan to say for a while. Admission was pretty fair.

This used to be an amazing museum. I used to visit at least once a year, ever since I was a child. The historic homes used to be my favourite part, they were absolutely magical, the rooms looked like they had just been left the way they were by their early residents, this combined with the costumed tour guides made everything seem so real. Going to Magic at the Mill was my favourite part of the holiday season as a child, so I decided to go back this year with my partner, for the first time in a couple of years, and what I saw broke my heart. All of the historic homes have been gutted out, the historical artifacts hidden away in storage, where nobody could see them. About 1/20th of the artifacts remain in the houses, and they are few and far between. What's replaced them is huge poster boards, plastered with some of the same historical information the tour guides used to tell you so magically. I found a lot of the wording on the boards rather offensive, for instance, rather than calling a Chinese settler a Chinese person, he was listed as "A Chinese," like he wasn't even a person. There were also a host of grammatical and spelling errors. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a child in this place now, sitting around while your guardian reads all of these boring signs. Of course, they have touch screens with video games for the kids in some of these once gleaming historical rooms, so the kids can completely ignore any learning they might achieve here. Everything felt cold, and clinical. The once warm and inviting historic homes now let off a vibe similar to the kind you might feel at a hospital. Sure, they brought these historic homes into the future, but that's not the point of a historic home, the point is to transport you into the past.My advice to the Willamette Heritage Center is to keep exhibits where they belong, in the exhibit hall, and don't waste the beautiful potential of these wonderful historic homes, and my advice to anybody visiting here? Don't bother wasting your money on the home tours, just do the Mill tour, it's free, and at least it's historic integrity has been preserved....for now.

A wonderful little tour through a mill. I did a self tour. Video at the beginning was informative. Enjoyed reading the stories in each building about the life and people of the times. Also enjoyed reading and seeing how things worked in the mill. Nice grounds, friendly staff and cute gift shops. There was also a little café but I didn't try it.

This old mill was established in the late 1800's and has much of the original machinery still there. A self guided tour takes you through the steps of operation and the reader boards explain it all. We hit it lucky when an employee came by asked if we wanted to see a big loom in action, and it was amazing how it worked. Outside they have the old historical houses of early settlers showing how they lived, many reader boards that gave the story of how the people came to Oregon and began Missionary work. Also a very good explanation of how the Indians were treated and forced onto reservations. The whole place is an excellent historical site.

This is an excellent place for adults and children. You can truly see what life was like when Salem was young. You are allowed to tour at your own pace which is a big plus!

We wished we'd budgeted more time. We arrived around 9:30 and left at 1:30, but with four preserved missionary structures and the mill complex, we could have easily stayed longer. The cafe here offers inventive and tasty dishes for lunch, and there's lots of things to shop for, if that's your thing. If you like history, you could spend the whole day seeing and reading all the exnibits. Our only criticism is that there weren't enough post cards of the attractions.

My sister, visiting from Iowa, spent an afternoon wandering through the historical houses and the mill itself. It had been a while since I had been there and got completely engrossed in all the displays. My sister felt that it was one of the best value-wise attractions that she had seen during her visit in Oregon. There was not a guide available the afternoon that we went but there were so many displays and informational placards that we really managed quite well. I found the historical houses much more interesting than the mill but the weavers did a wonderful job of explaining a bit about how the weaving process worked

Charming pieces of history, very easy for even people in walkers or wheelchairs to visit as there is an elevator. The grounds are a prefect place for a picnic, we have taken advantage of it several times.

Great information about the mill, the founding of this part of Oregon. and some fun shops. Don't miss

My wife and I as well as two friends from Seattle visited here last spring. We spent about two hours and felt our time was well spent. Lots to see and mostly out of the rain that was falling that day. Quite a lot of information on how this part of Oregon was settled. I would recommend a visit to others.

This Heritage Center preserves a large woolen mill from the late 1800's and several very old buildings from Salem or the Salem area. It was interesting and my wife and I spent about three hours here. We found it a bit difficult to follow exactly how the wool from the sheep is converted into clothes in this factory. There are explanations of each piece of machinery, but we could not follow everything and were soon lost in what did what and when in the manufacturing process.

Went last night to the new exhibit, very nice with lots of information from other museums and organizations, very nice. Such a lovely place and the people are very friendly.

Great place to visit and learn about a woolen mill which was a major player in early Salem. There is an historic set of houses - showing what life was like in the 1850's. These are homes of important early Salem settlers. There are rooms to rent for events and a nice setting for a picnic lunch or lunch in the cafe. A must for Salem!

We did a self tour throughout the Mill. Beautiful and peaceful outside near the water. The buildings were restored and created for us to walk through and learn every aspect of the place. Some of the reading material was a lot in the houses, could take you hours to finish. However we chose some things to read and just walked through and took great pictures. Probably a place you'd want to visit more then once to capture everything. Coffee shop was amazing and we even bought some great souvenirs to take home.