School & Group Tours

SCHOOL TOURS

 Bring your class for a visit to one of the San Joaquin Valley’s most significant historic sites.  It’s a site that helps tell the story of the development of agriculture in the Valley.  It’s a site that helps tell California’s immigration story.  Come and explore with your students a remarkable piece of regional and California history!  Visit and:

Experience a one-room school house in the Carriage House Education Center complete with 120-year-old school desks - one for each student.

Explore household objects from the 1809s - a rug beater, curling iron, butter bowl & paddle, wash board, game of nine-pins - through a hands-on “History Detective” activity.

Tour 109-year-old Kearney Mansion.  The historic ranch manager’s house together with a large ranch town served as the headquarters for Kearney’s 5,000-acre raisin estate and is located in historic Kearney Park  - a perfect setting to have a picnic lunch after our class tour!

Learn about the agricultural beginnings of California’s San Joaquin Valley through the story of one of California’s agricultural pioneers --- M. Theo Kearney.

Visit Fresno of the 1890s through photographs that feature children growing up in late 19^th century America illustrating how they dressed, the toys they played with, the school experience.

Walk down the streets of Fresno in the 1890s -  peering into shop windows, encountering horse-drawn streetcars and fire wagons, taking a drink out of the “Boy with the Leaking Boot” fountain in Courthouse Park.  Lead students to compare and contrast their lives in the 21^st century with how boys and girls lived in the early years of Fresno’s history.

A field trip to Kearney Mansion Museum

meets California Social Science Standards

3.1 (2)    2.3 (2 and 3)     3.4 (3)

Tour Fees

$3 per student     $5 per adult chaperone   teachers are free

Tour Schedule 

Tuesdays – Fridays           First Tour at 9:30AM     Allow 2 hours per 40 students

To Book A Tour

Call the Historical Society office at 559-441-0862 and ask for the museum tour coordinator or email info@valleyhistory.org 

GROUP TOURS

Make Kearney a destination for your group!  Come out with friends or colleagues for a glimpse of the San Joaquin Valley’s beginnings.  Learn about early Valley agriculture through the life and times of M. Theo Kearney, a California ag pioneer.  Tour a turn-of-the-century ranch manager’s house with great examples of late 19^th century residential interiors. Experience the grounds of Kearney’s 1890s landscape.  The hour-long tour includes a visit to the museum store.

Group tours may be scheduled to accommodate an organization’s needs (mornings or afternoons). A minimum of 12 guests is required. Tours must be booked at least two weeks in advance, and a non-refundable deposit must be received at least one week before the tour date.

Tour Fees

$5 per adult         

$4 per senior (60 yrs and above)    

$4 per student (13 yrs – 17 yrs  or with valid student ID)

$3 per child  (12 yrs. and under)

To Book A Tour

Call the Historical Society office at 559-441-0862 and ask for the museum tour coordinator or email info@valleyhistory.org.