Saturday, November 4th, 2023, the Vann House Quilters will be hosting our annual Quilting Bee to continue working on their Dresden Flower quilt. Bring the family to see the quilt exhibit inside the house, and then join us for pressing cider apples in the Cherokee Farmstead.

Fall is finally settling into the rolling foothills of Murray County, and we sure are enjoying the break from the heat, at least in the evenings. More than two centuries ago, the Vann’s would have watched the October fields begin to change color, thinning and drooping off to slumber as the harvest season began. By November, the air is colder, crisper, and the nights grow longer. Time to bed down for winter and make sure you are prepared for the long cold before spring. In the time before electricity, people could line their home’s interior with fabric to help trap heat from the stove or fireplace. They used rugs, blankets, and quilts to wrap up their families for long winter snuggles.

Here at the Vann House we have put our large collection of handmade quilts, some vintage, on display for guests to view during tours. Right now, through the end of November, guests can admire the creativity and artistic skill of women who spent weeks and months cutting and sewing these gorgeous quilts together for their loved ones. We have quilts hand-made and donated from James Vann’s very descendants, quilts with patterns both familiar and complex, woven fabrics, even an antebellum quilt that was crafted by an enslaved person who once lived in Murray County. To honor a second historical Autumn activity, we’ll be pressing apples and sampling the cider in our Cherokee Farmstead, much as both Cherokee and American citizens would have done.

December will also be a beautiful month to tour the Vann House Historic Site. One of the earliest Christmas celebrations in the Cherokee Nation was hosted by the Spring Place Moravian Missionaries. Every winter, the Vann House is decorated for an 1800s Moravian-style Christmas. On December 8th and 9th, from 5pm-8pm, we will light more than 300 real candles to light your way as

you tour the decorations after nightfall. Our natural, hand-crafted decorations will remain in place from December 8th until Christmas.

The Vann House will be closed Thursday, November 23rd to observe Thanksgiving with our families. From December through March, the Vann House will be closed on Sundays.

Regular Admission: $5.25 – $7 plus tax, children five and under are free.

Regular hours: Thursday-Saturday 9-5, Sunday 1-5. December-March: closed on Sunday.

Last tour of the day always begins at 4 p.m.

Visit us on Facebook at ‘Friends of the Chief Vann House,’ or on Instagram at ‘Vann_House_Park,’ or online at www.gastateparks.org/chiefvannhouse

82 Hwy. 225 N. · Chatsworth, GA 30705 · 706-695-2598 · vann_house_park@dnr.ga.gov