wade house

We had a great day. Very beautiful area. My 10 year old son and I came to visit my sister in law and my 2 teenage nieces ,15 and 17 and their 90 year old grandmother and one of my nieces friends 15. We spent the day there, we all had a great day, the kids carved pumpkins and bobbed for apples.we when on horse drawn wagons on a tour of the property, very informative, friendly people dressed in period clothing (1800's). We had so much fun. Only thing we were not happy about was that, the kids wanted ice cream, we told them when we got back by the time we got back found out that the cafe closed at 3:30. The kids were very disappointed. We figured the cafe would have been open until after the last wagon came back at 4:30. Other wise it really was a wonderful day.

The Wade house is a hotel that was built at the midway point between Sheboygan and Fond DU Lac. This made it a natural stopping point for travelers making their way between the two towns in the late 1800s. The site includes a historic blacksmith shop and water powered sawmill where they do live demonstrations and a guided tour of the Wade house itself. They have just opened a new welcome center that houses an extensive horse drawn carriage museum. This alone was worth the price of admission for me. There is also a small cafe in the welcome center. (you can eat with out paying admission) We found the food to be very good. Usually at this type of tourist location the food can be sub par because they have a captive audience, we were pleasantly surprised.

My husband and I went to the Wade House with our 9 year old granddaughter who really is into Pioneer times (a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan). We had a great time. She got to snuggle with one of the horses and really enjoyed the carriage ride to and from the Main House. Our docent was very knowledgeable and funny and gave us lots of info about the Wade House and the Wade family. After the tour we got to try home made butter, cheese and ice cream...it was dairy day! We spent time at the sawmill and the blacksmith. The carriage display was much better then I expected it to be. Lots of interactive things for the kids. Great way to spend an afternoon.

My family and I spent the entire afternoon here and we enjoyed every minute of it. We were greeted by a pair of horses which gave us a wagon ride from the carriage museum to the actual Wade House. The house tour guide was very informative. The tour of the house lasted about an hour. After that we spent a little time at a blacksmith's shop and sawmill. We proceeded to the carriage museum via a well-marked shady trail. There are about 100 wagons in the museum. The Wade House and Carriage Museum does an excellent job of bringing to life a piece of history from a bygone era. The museum is open from 10-5 and costs about $10 for each adult. Allow about 3 hours to see everything.

We had an event at the Wade House and it was a pleasant surprise. The museum and house are very nice. The carriage displays are vast and interesting. There are several interactive items for kids to participate in. Definitely recommend stopping by.

The house was in spring cleaning The women couldn't reach the top wi ndows so my wife and I got to help. Normally you are not allowed on the front porch, but these windows needed to get cleaned. We walked through the carriage museum had some excellent exhibets had the only horse drawn coal wagon in exsistance. It was a great way to spend the day.

The Wade House is an old coaching inn that has been restored and is beautifully furnished with period pieces and the tour guides are friendly and informative. There were even a few chickens scratching in the yard and sheep that has just been sheared in the pen nearby. The blacksmith shop is dark, hot, and interesting to watch a pot hook being hammered out. The sawmill is loud and fun to learn about. We took the path from the center to the site, it winds through a boggy area along the Mullet River where we saw pitcher plants--and lots of skeeters (wear bug repellent)--but it was an easy path and fairly short. The carriage/wagon ride was great. We loved seeing all the old carriages in the museum in the main building. Lunch in the Cafe was good--sandwiches, chips, soup, and ice cream for reasonable prices--and the gift shop was well supplied with a mix of local interest items and general gift-y things. A fun afternoon's activity and well worth the time and fee. I'd go back.

This site presents a wonderful assortment of history. The Wade House is an old inn beautifully preserved and just the right amount of artifacts. Our guide was well-informed and interesting. Likewise the blacksmith shop was informative. Sadly, the saw mill was not open in the time slot between the Wade House tour and when the horse-drawn "bus" arrived to take us back to the carriage museum. The new carriage museum is great. However, I would have enjoyed learning more about the history of transportation throughout the State of Wisconsin -- from native trails, to explorer and fur trader land and river routes, and to the development of state roads. The short portion of "plank road" was a nice little touch.

Our family kids (7,9,14) were there on July 25th 13. The house was great to tour through, the blacksmith and saw mill was interesting with all the history and they just opened a new carriage museum at the main check in area, and of course the carriage ride to the house was great! A great place to visist and we plan to go back!

This is a very educating tour. Grounds are nice and clean. There were 2 couples on the tour that brought their out of control children. They were very disrupted and cried and yelled the entire tour of the house. It was very hard to hear the guide. The parents seemed oblivious to this and talked throughout the tour themselves. The father carried one child who continuously yelled and kicked the whole time. He would cut into the line and you would have to protect yourself from this child's kicking. The Wade House needs to set rules about children under a certain age being allowed in. If you can't control your children, don't bring them. Sorry, but you could tell these children acted like this ALL the time. Other than that, it was good. The carriage museum is awesome. The blacksmith building was interesting. The restrooms are super clean. Nice trail through the woods back to the main building.

The visit starts with the most fantastic collection of carriages from simple farm ones to fancy stage coach, to early ones used to fight fires and more. Than take a Percheron horse drawn wagon ride to a guided tour of the lovely three story restored Stagecoach Inn. Top that off with blacksmith and sawmill demonstrations. All for great value of $11. Check the wagon ride schedule and house tour when getting tickets to time the visit. Walking back to the visitor center rather than waiting for a ride back took no more than 10 minutes.

The Wade House Historic Site is an interesting place to visit. There is a beautiful new visitors center located on Hwy 23 - double check your directions - their website is not updated to reflect the new entrance yet (May 25, 2013). The center has a wonderful collection of antique carriages in the lower level that is worth looking at. There is horse-drawn wagon that takes you from the center to the Wade House, Sawmill and Blacksmith Shop. While the docents in the Sawmill and Blacksmith Shop were very informative and could answer all of our questions, the Wade House itself was a little disappointing for us. The docent is an elderly woman with a very soft voice - difficult for us to hear. It seemed like she was well informed, but again, I could not hear her well. I also feel that too many people went through at the same time, making it difficult to move through the house. Perhaps they should have more than one docent in the house and stagger the tours.I think that once the Visitors Center is more organized - they only opened a week before our visit - things will improve. When we arrived and paid the entrance fee (a bit steep) we were told that the next carriage would be leaving in 5 minutes from the lower level; after waiting 15 minutes, one gentleman went back to the counter to ask what the status was. The young woman tried to call the carriage driver to see where he was on the route, but apparently had no response. She then walked up the trail to locate him. She found him a short distance away and we finally boarded the wagon. It is only a short 5 minute ride up the trail (about 1/2 mile) to the original site.The disorganized part is that once he dropped us off, we had no idea when he would return! We had to wait about 20 minutes after we finished the tours before he returned to pick us up. It would be nice if there was a regular system for drop off/pick up times - perhaps every 15 minutes? Or even on the half hour. At least you know when you need to be at the wagon stop!I also find it odd that although the Visitors Center, the Sawmill and Blacksmith Shop are open at 10 am, the Wade House itself does not open for a first tour until 1pm. So if you arrive early, like we did, you will be doing a lot of wandering around aimlessly or you will skip the Wade House itself. It just does not take 3 hours to tour the center and the other two sites.So, although the history is interesting, just plan on it taking more time than you would think.

Costumed guides make history come alive. This is what country life was like before RRs. Stagecoach inns that served food and liquor(unfortunately only to men) and sitting room for women plus ballroom.

Had a wonderful visit here it was all done up for halloween and the main house was closed, but when one of the staff knew we were visiting from england she opened it up for us and gave us a most interesting guided tour. There is so much to see here.

I enjoyed walking through the buildings, learning about how things were done and seeing the architecture and furnishings of the home and businesses. Especially fun when they are having a special day or the holiday decorations are up.