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NewsJune 30, 2025

The Tobacco Farm Life Museum in Kenly is reopening under state management, offering free admission this week, new exhibits and family activities to celebrate North Carolina’s agricultural heritage.

The Tobacco Farm Life Museum in Kenly is reopening.
The Tobacco Farm Life Museum in Kenly is reopening. Museum photo

KENLY — A museum with deep roots in North Carolina’s farm culture is reopening with fresh support from the state and some new stories to tell.

The Tobacco Farm Life Museum, now under the wing of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, will host a grand reopening at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 5. The event will feature family-friendly activities like crafts, a hornworm scavenger hunt and access to both the exhibit gallery and 4.5-acre grounds. Admission is free.

“This reopening represents more than the completion of site enhancements,” said Pamela B. Cashwell, the department’s secretary. “It’s about reconnecting people with the history, stories and values that built this region.”

Ahead of the reopening, visitors can preview the museum between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. July 1-3, also free of charge. Regular hours will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

The state took over the museum’s operations last year, setting aside $725,000 over two years to support staffing and programming. The museum had long been nonprofit but sought state oversight to ensure its sustainability.

“We wanted the TFLM to be sustainable for the future,” board member Susan Barnes said at the time. “Tobacco and farming have been so important to North Carolina, we wanted to be sure that its history was preserved for many years to come.”

Under the new arrangement, the museum is now part of the state’s Division of History Museums. Maria Vann, who also oversees regional history museums and the N.C. Maritime Museums, is leading the site forward.

“We’ve been working to develop new programs and updating our facilities, but there will be more ahead,” Vann said. “For now, we are just excited about being able to share the museum again with our community.”

The museum dates back to farm tours in the 1980s and has evolved into a place that shares the history of North Carolina farm families, especially those from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Inside, visitors will find refreshed displays with new interpretive panels and a temporary exhibit featuring miniature models of tobacco barns, sleds and other tools of the trade.

Outside, a hard-packed gravel path leads visitors through seven historic structures on the museum’s grounds. The Kiwanis Club of Kenly is helping support reopening-day activities, and Vann expects public programming to ramp up later this year.

For Ginger Galloway, whose father was a tenant farmer in the 1930s, the reopening strikes a personal chord. “He said one year … they got a tobacco allotment,” she wrote in a Facebook comment. “He said it was like having gold in those days. They did not go hungry that year. Can’t wait to go to this museum.”

The museum is located at 709 N. Church St. in Kenly. More information is online at tobaccofarmlifemuseum.nc.gov.

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