Annual Events & Activities

Ice Cream Social

Table Setting Event

Table Setting

Independence Day

The Mansion will be open on July 4th. Tours before and after the parade, 8:30 to 10:00 am and 11:30 to 12:30 pm.

The McHenry Mansion will be decked out in red, white, and blue bunting to celebrate the 4th of July. As in the past, the Mansion will be open for viewing from 8:30 a.m. until the parade reaches the Mansion. It will be open for approximately half an hour after the parade ends.

The McHenry Mansion Foundation will be operating a food booth on 15th Street. Hot dogs, sodas, water, donuts, coffee, and ice cream will be available.

So watch the parade under the shady elms on the I street side of the Mansion, tour the Mansion while you are waiting for the parade, and have a hot dog.

St. Patrick's Day Event

The St. Patrick's Day Party is always a fun event and will be Friday March 17, 2023. Social hour is at 5:00 pm and dinner served at 6:00 pm. There will be live Celtic Music, fun games and other activities. The party will be held in the Mansion Garden area weather permitting, otherwise in the Mansion Basement. The cost is $50 per person. Please make reservations with Janie at (209) 522-1739.

Candlelight Tours

Tour the McHenry Mansion decorated in all of its Christmas finery by candlelight. The tours will be on Friday, December 15th, 2023 and Saturday, December 16th, 2023. The Tours begin at 5:00 pm and the last entrance is at 8:30 pm. Tickets are $10 for Adults and $5 for Children under ten years. Learn the history of some of your favorite holiday traditions such as Christmas trees, candles, candy canes, gingerbread houses, poinsettias, stockings and many more.

Christmas Tea

Get in the Holiday spirit by making your reservation for the McHenry Mansion Christmas Tea. It will be held on Tuesday, December 5th, 2023. There will be two seatings: 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Cost is $40 per person. The first seating is already sold out and seating is limited so make your reservations early. You can make your reservations by calling Janie at (209) 522-1739.

Morbid Obsession

Morbid Obsession is Back! For a different Halloween Experience, take a self-guided, one-of-a-kind tour through the McHenry Mansion where you will experience the Victorian Way of Death including Strange Funeral Customs. Most funerals took place in the family residence. The McHenry’s were no exception. Express your condolences to Mrs. McHenry standing by the open casket of dearly departed Robert McHenry. Learn about the “fashionable disease”—Consumption. For some, consumption or tuberculosis as we call it today, ended in a swift death. For others, it became a lingering illness, and for others, there were no symptoms. (Sound familiar?)

For the Victorians, it was important to remember the dead. This could be done by preserving the deceased’s hair in a locket or brooch or a hair wreath. With the advent of photography, post-mortem photographs were in demand, particularly if no pictures were taken when the person was alive. Many times, the bodies were posed with other family members as if they were alive. A gallery of these photographs awaits you.

The custom of wearing black was a way to let friends and strangers know that you have lost a member of your family. Learn about the rules for appropriate attire.

19th Century embalming came into its own due to the Civil War.

See a portable embalming bed and equipment that could be used in the home. See lithographs of major Presidential funerals: Lincoln, Garfield, and Grant.

Then there are the cemeteries, spiritualists, and much more!

The dates are Tuesday, October 24th, Wednesday, October 25th, and Thursday, October 26th, 2023. Tours start at 5:30 p.m., and the last entrance is at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $10 per person.