Our Programs
Guided Tours
We invite guests of all ages to step back in time, to 1779, to experience everyday life in the federal-style home of Hugh and Isabella Torance and their son, James Torrance's mercantile store. Our experienced docents guide visitors on a living history adventure as they tour the homesite and visit the Torance Store. Learn about Hugh Torance and his family, their connections to other prominent figures, local families, historic sites, and important historical events that spans six generations of Torance descendants who owned this immaculately preserved property.
School Tour Progam
We welcome public or private school, homeschool, daycare and summer camp field trip groups of 15 or more year-round! We can cater our guided tours to highlight certain topics like Huntersville and North Carolina history, American history, the American Revolution, ecology, other historical places and people connected to the Torance family, and others as requested. We can also facilitate hands-on games and activities, 18th century cooking demonstrations, and service projects! Please connect with us for more details.
Store Program
With an expertly accessioned collection of antiques, our Store offers a rare display of the same mercantile goods on its shelves that were referenced on the last pages of James Torrence's mercantile inventory records in 1825. The Torance Store also offers sundries like snacks and beverages, local goods like honey and lavender, artisan crafts and gifts, kids toys & costumes, historical books and so much more! The Store is open to the public every Sunday from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, February 1st through December 15th.
Special Events
We host a MecDec Day celebration, colonial cooking and craft demonstrations, ghost tours, historical holiday events, and HEARTS Happenings events throughout the year. We also participate in historical home and garden tours and museum passport tours. Most of our events are free and open to the public! Check out our Events page for more details about upcoming special events and to book your tickets!
Preservation and Conservation
We strive for continued historic preservation and ecological conservation on our site and in the surrounding areas. Working alongside planners and developers, we continue to advocate for the preservation of our important piece of North Carolina history. We strongly believe historic places can be preserved and add value to a thoughtful development plan and encourage historic preservation through reuse and rehabilitation, and community involvement. If you'd like to help us ensure the Hugh Torance House and Store survives and thrives, have connections to resources that can help, or would like to volunteer your time, please connect with us.
We share
in the
HEARTS mission
HISTORY
Travel Through Time Like Never Before
Nothing compares to immersing yourself in the past to see new perspectives. HEARTS follows stories and history connected to this land from prehistory to the present through place-based experiences. These experiences explore and share how nature, history, culture, and the built environment work together to provide concrete context to better understand the deep history of the site. In addition to the rich natural history of the land, HEARTS highlights community connections to the people of the land from the first settlers in 10,000 BC through the modern 21st century.
.jpg)
ECOLOGY
Reconnect with Nature on an Ecological Island
The landscape surrounding our historic sites presents a pristine glimpse into the ecology of the wetlands and woodlands for the Piedmont region. A sanctuary from the surrounding development, the land is home to many native and protected species. Connections to nature are featured wherever possible, sharing both lore and history. Volunteer opportunities for stewardship, preservation, and conservation are opportunities for individuals and groups of all ages to protect the environments in which our historic sites reside.
.jpg)
ARTS
You Can’t Have HEARTS Without the Arts
To share the stories of the land and all the people the land has touched over the past 10,000 years, narratives are explored in unique and creative ways through site-specific music, dance, poetry, and visual art installations from every genre. Poetry and the written word are explored through historic writers and poets encompassing the 18th-21st centuries. The performing arts come alive by infusing dance and dramatic performances, historic reenactments and modern artistic interpretations into educational entertainment.
.jpg)
REUNION
Connections Through Collections
The Reunion Project was created by HEARTS to collect and share the stories of the people connected to historical places throughout time. While collections of documents and stories of the lives of formerly enslaved people and indigenous people is a key component of the HEARTS mission, it has evolved into an interconnected and ever growing web of documents, artifacts, and stories of all people and places throughout the Catawba Valley Region.For more information, visit the HEARTS Reunion Project page.
.jpg)
TRAILS
Where Trails Intersect, People Come Together
Near many of Catawba Valley's historical sites are accesses to trails and greenways, many of which are connected to larger networks like the Carolina Thread Trail. HEARTS encourages sites to grow their our own nature trails and to connect their trails to larger trailway and greenway passages. Offering interpretative signage detailing the native flora and fauna, the history of remaining buildings, ruins, and the locations of structures that no longer remain are creative ways to engage and educate visitors and keep them coming back.
.jpg)
Sustainability
The Oldest Sites, Alive Again
Long forgotten or in disrepair, HEARTS works hard to rehabilitate, restore, and preserve even the oldest historical sites and to re-open them to the public to share their interesting stories and to ensuring the site's continued survival. Whether it's back-office support, on-site management, or marketing and fundraising that a threatened site needs, HEARTS develops a plan to achieve each sites' specific mission and goals.