Lancaster: Museums, Art and Nature

Lancaster combines historic museums and architecture with art in public spaces and expansive landscapes. When planning your stay, you can consider these themes as distinct areas of focus: cultural history, art and music, or nature. The attractions and offerings also differ in form—from a museum to a walking trail with pavement markers to woodlands, ravines and excursions.

Museums and Cultural History

The Sherman House Museum is the birthplace of General William Tecumseh Sherman. The Decorative Arts Center of Ohio is a museum and cultural center dedicated to American decorative arts from the 18th century to the present. These two places offer different starting points for a cultural stay: one is associated with a historical figure, while the other spans the history of decorative arts.

The Georgian Museum combines Federal and Greek Revival styles, while also showcasing 19th-century American craftsmanship. Its collections include silver, quilts, musical instruments, dollhouses and antique miniatures. It also features carved figures by folk artist Elijah Pierce. If you are interested in the design and craftsmanship of different objects, you will find a different perspective here than at the broader Decorative Arts Center of Ohio.

Hands-on artistic activities are also part of the cultural offerings: the Ohio Glass Museum offers practical classes where you can create your own works of art. The Lancaster Festival, in turn, is an annual ten-day celebration of art and music. Its program includes more than 70 events at 22 different venues. If you would like to include the festival in your trip, check the dates when planning.

Art and History in Downtown

The History Underfoot Trail features ten pavement markers in front of historic sites in downtown Lancaster and is designed for a self-guided walk. Rather than a single museum collection, you encounter historic sites along a route. The Lancaster’s Open Air Art Trail winds through downtown streets between Mulberry Street and Chestnut Street, and between Memorial Drive and High Street. Public artworks displayed along the trail include murals, sculptures, and stained, leaded and art glass works.

The two trails offer different points of focus: the History Underfoot Trail highlights pavement markers in front of historic sites, while the Open Air Art Trail features public artworks in several forms. This can help you tailor the cultural part of your stay to your interests—history in downtown or art in public spaces.

Landscapes and Trails

Clear Creek Metro Park in Lancaster encompasses 5,470 acres of woodland interspersed with sandstone outcrops, ravines and streams. The 4,729-acre Allen F Beck State Nature Preserve is located within the park. There, rugged trails cross ridgelines and pass through deep ravines. The park’s landscape and the preserve’s trails offer different impressions: woodlands, rocks and streams on the one hand, and distinctive ridges and ravines on the other.

Another landscape feature is Mount Pleasant, a Blackhand sandstone landform that rises almost 300 feet above Lancaster. The Benua Trail offers a different scale for planning a walk: it is a 1.9-mile loop through woods and meadows. These details give you specific points of comparison among the natural attractions—from a named elevation to an expansive woodland and a loop trail with a specified length.

Excursions and Planning Your Stay

Charles Alley Nature Park offers year-round excursions for schools, 4-H groups, scouting groups, and families who homeschool or participate in distance learning. The offering is intended for clearly defined groups and differs from the trails and landscapes you can include in your travel plans independently.

When looking for a hotel in Lancaster, you can first decide whether museums and architecture, the festival and public art, or landscapes and trails will be your main focus. If you plan to attend the festival, checking its dates is a useful part of planning.

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