Old Bethpage Village Offers Youngsters 19th-Century Lifestyle During Summer Program

Children observe a volunteer popping corn the old-fashioned way.

In the age of the Internet, video games and cell phones, it’s difficult for youngsters to imagine what life might have been like in an era when electrical lighting didn’t even exist. But this summer, children ages nine through 12 can travel back in time and experience that sort of life at Old Bethpage Village Restoration, announced Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi.

OBVR’s Junior Apprentice Program provides a crash course in how youngsters on Long Island lived during the 19th century, set within the confines of the historic and unique Village.

The program will be offered during four one-week sessions the weeks of June 30, July 14, July 28 and August 11, from 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. The fee for each session is $220 per child. 

As part of the program, children will take part in a range of hands-on activities, including historic crafts; farm chores; school time in a one-room schoolhouse using slate boards; and household activities such as churning butter, making ice cream, making a scarecrow and gathering eggs. Nineteenth-century children’s games will also be featured, such as rolling hoops and shooting marbles. In addition, there will be military drills and the opportunity to dress in Civil War period clothing.

“Life without today’s conveniences might at first seem a challenge, but children ultimately find the experience enriching and certainly gain an appreciation for the lives led by an earlier generation of Long Islanders,” says OBVR Site Director and Curator Jim McKenna.

For more information and to receive an application, call Old Bethpage Village Restoration at 516-572-8401. The Village itself is closed until March.

Old Bethpage Village provides visitors with a wonderful opportunity to step back in time and experience life in a recreated mid-19th-century American village set on 209 acres. It is located on Round Swamp Road in Old Bethpage.