We want to celebrate the completion of Vesterheim’s Heritage Park with you!

You are cordially invited to the public dedication of this exciting new space on the Vesterheim campus. Join us for a brief ceremony at the Mill Street Portal. Following the ceremony there will be entertainment by the Decorah Nordic Dancers and Eden Ehm on the Hardanger fiddle and refreshments. Many of the historic buildings will be open from 1:30-3:30 p.m. for touring and guides will be available to answer questions.

Our special guest will be Mr. Torleiv Opland, Deputy Chief of Mission from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

We look forward to seeing you!

Thank you to the Decorah Culver’s for providing lingonberry frozen custard, a Norwegian delicacy, for this event!

More about the project:

Vesterheim traces its history back to Luther College in 1877. Luther President Laur. Larsen had a bold and courageous dream—to begin collecting everyday objects of Norwegian immigrants. In line with this dream Larsen’s successor, C.K. Preus, created an open-air display beginning with the Egge-Koren log house. That display was eventually moved from Luther to Vesterheim’s downtown campus and continued to grow.

Now, Vesterheim has re-imagine this open-air display into Heritage Park, an important component of the museum’s collection. Find our more about this project here.

Heritage Park would not be possible without some exceptional partners — Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s Water Quality Initiative Urban Conservation Project, the Paul D. Pratt and Marguerite Olson Pratt Fund of InFaith Community Foundation, and Kate Nelson Rattenborg. Vesterheim has also received funding from Winneshiek County Community Foundation for interpretive signs.

The history and 360 degrees images of each Heritage Park building are available here.