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149-19 38th Avenue
The Voelker Orth Museum is a bird sanctuary and Victorian garden that functions as a museum maintaining the cultural and historical heritage of Queens and Long Island. First purchased by a German immigrant by the name of Conrad Voelker in 1881, the house was bequeathed as an educational institution after the death of Conrad's daughter Theresa in 1993.
Now serving as a bird sanctuary, the museum's distinguishing feature is it garden, which is maintained using gardening methods from the 18th century including hand pruning and the use of natural pesticides. Migrating birds such as orioles, mockingbirds, blue jays and a variety of butterflies are often visable, as are honey bees, a staple of the museum's educational programs.
Docents give tours of the house, which has original period belongingsof the Orth family. Exhibitions of paintings and photography are hung in the parlour and dining room and concerts using the house's Sohlmer piano, made in Astoria, Queens, take place occasionally.
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Ongoing After a brief introduction to the water cycle and terrarium history, budding environmentalists can try their hand at making their own terrarium to take home.
Designs in Nature: A School Program in Science and History
Ongoing Students learn about Louis Comfort Tiffany, his nature-based designs and how he affected the area of Queens where his workshop was located. Using colored cellophane, students make their own stained glass window to take home with them as they learn about the place where science and art intersect.
Ongoing Imaginations take flight in this workshop where young ornithologists learn about bird habitats and create their own bird feeder to take home.