Museum
Funk Prairie Home and Gem and Mineral Museum
3 locals recommend,
Tips from locals
Donny
August 25, 2022
There’s a fascinating piece of 19th-century Illinois life just southwest of Bloomington. Now a private historic house museum, the Funk Prairie home was built in 1864 by one Lafayette Funk as a wedding gift to his bride Elizabeth. Remarkably the interior has retained many of the furnishings and decoration from the decade it was built and is brimming with interesting Funk family curios. Lafayette Funk had a passion for natural history, and across 30 years he amassed an amazing collection of fossils, minerals and gems, and these are presented alongside corals, sea shells, Chinese soapstone carvings and Native American artifacts from Central Illinois. Also on the tour is a barn packed with forgotten 19th-century agricultural tools from a time when mules and horses provided the power.
There’s a fascinating piece of 19th-century Illinois life just southwest of Bloomington. Now a private historic house museum, the Funk Prairie home was built in 1864 by one Lafayette Funk as a wedding gift to his bride Elizabeth. Remarkably the interior has retained many of the furnishings and deco…
Funk Prairie Home and Gem and Mineral Museum by Airbnb Experiences
Get to know this iconic landmark through Airbnb Experiences, small group activities led by locals
Location
10875 Prairie Home Ln
Shirley, IL