The buildings include the Glass family house, a log home that might have been the first house in Sharpsburg, an old church that once stood in Clear Spring and Fahrney's office, which was along Md. 66 across from where the San Mar Children's Home now operates.
Museum volunteers have been sorting through artifacts related to Fahrney's practice and some of them are on display in the museum. One of the artifacts on display Sunday included a label from Fahrney's own brand of tobacco.
In Fahrney's time, it was believed that tobacco use had medicinal benefits, said Dorry Norris, a volunteer for the museum.
Local people researching Fahrney have discovered that his last name was spelled different ways, as was the town in which he practiced, Norris said.
Although Fahrney was in the Boonsboro area, his tobacco label described the doctor as being "near Boonsberry."
In the log home where Sally Waltz cooked over an open fire, visitors streamed in and out of the building as she described Washington County life in the 1800s.
Cooking over an open fire was traditional until the Civil War, Waltz said. And although iron cook stoves came into being around the time of the war, open-fire cooking probably continued in the county for some time after the war because of tough economic times, she said.
Outside the log home where Waltz cooked, volunteers worked on the four-square garden where beds raised about a foot and a half off the ground allowed the soil to warm faster, thus allowing earlier vegetable planting in the spring, said Karen Greeley, spokeswoman for the project.
"There's so much stuff about this," Greeley said, looking over the garden. "I just love it."
Want to see more of the Washington County Rural Heritage Museum's offerings?
On the second Sunday of each month, go to the four-square garden for talks on gardening. The "Second Sunday in the Garden" discussions extend through October.
On Saturday, a plant sale will be offered from 8 a.m. to noon.
The museum is open through mid-December on Saturdays and Sundays, from 1 to 4 p.m.
