The Brethren & Mennonite Heritage Center, Harrisonburg, Va., seeks to share and celebrate the faith and history of the Brethren and Mennonites. Located on a 22-acre hilltop just outside Harrisonburg, the Center was created in 1999.
Church of the Brethren and Mennonite congregations support the Center, and an equal number of board members come from each denomination. Both groups came from Germany and migrated to the New World in the 1700s and 1800s.
The campus has several historic buildings open to guests, including two pre-Civil War houses, an 1829 log structure, and an 1854 brick home. Visitors can tour a replica of a 1794 shoemaker’s shop. The Center also features a working blacksmith shop, a brooder house, and a one-room schoolhouse that was also used as a rural Mennonite meetinghouse.
Tour guides greet visitors from most U.S. states and lead campus tours, helping guests understand and experience life in the 19th and 20th centuries. Over 5000 guests visit the Center each year.
Each spring and fall, hundreds of schoolchildren come to the Center for field trips. Students receive hands-on education led by several dozen volunteers who support the field trips. Many parents, teachers, and other chaperones come with the K-1 and 5th grade students.
The Heritage Center is a meetingplace for tourists, local volunteers, and staff who explain the story of the Brethren, founded in 1708, and the Mennonites, who began in 1525, both in Europe. Supported by many churches, the Center explains the values of peace and nonresistance, community, mission, and helping one’s neighbor.