In a world that resonates with buzzing electricity, blaring television sets, zooming automobiles, and constant activity, Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms, operated by the Heritage Society of Austin (HSA), is a calm refuge from modern life. The almost 30-year-old living history museum teaches visitors about nineteenth-century life when Austin’s population was 16,000, food was homegrown, and it paid to be handy with an anvil.

Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms is named for Frederick and Harriet Bachman Jourdan, who homesteaded the site in the 1850’s. Their descendants donated the property to the Heritage Society of Austin for a heritage museum to honor early settlers. The facility covers more than 80 acres in Northeast Austin and depicts life in the 1880’s on the Blackland Prairie of Central Texas and is comprised of a commercial cotton farm, a homestead farm, and a tenant farm.

Pioneer Farms began as a summer program by the Austin Natural Science Association and was supported by the Austin Park and Recreation Department. Later the Science Association pulled out of the program in order to focus primarily on the Austin Nature Center. Two years ago the Parks and Recreation Department stopped funding the programs and staff. Since 2003 the Heritage Society of Austin has operated Pioneer Farms, staffed solely by volunteers.

HSA, a nationally recognized preservation organization founded in 1953, protects the diverse architectural and cultural heritage of the greater Austin community. According to Mike Ward, chairman of the HSA 12-member board of governors, the buildings at Pioneer Farms date back to the early 1800’s. "Pioneer Farms has an inventory of more than two dozen historic buildings, the earliest being a log corn-crib dating to the 1830’s," he said.

Pioneer Farms offers a variety of history programs for both children and adults. "Our main goal is to teach people about Texas’ agrarian history during the 1800’s. On Wednesdays during the fall and spring, we of ...

Read the entirety of this article in the print edition.

Subscribe online — it's quick and easy