How do you care for century-old artifacts? Employees at the Manatee Village Historical Park are sure to tell you that you do it slowly, carefully and with special training.

Nestled among the Live Oaks and Long Leaf Pines, hidden from busy Manatee Avenue in Bradenton is the Manatee Village Historical Park.

The courthouse, school house church And general store are among the 19th and early 20th century buildings.

With just days before their doors re-open on Monday, July 2, these caretakers of history are wrapping up their annual restoration project -- this one on the Stephens Family home.

“It was built in 1912 and the family moved in in 1913,” explained Kathryn Rohlwing, the Park’s Special Events and Marketing Coordinator.

Staff members have been calling it “home” every workday for the past month, painstakingly cleaning every artifact, over 300 in all, from antique rocking chairs to antique rocking horses.

They all had to be taken out, along with the furniture. Then staff members donned gloves, used soft clothes and dry paintbrushes to go over the antiques.

In some instances, they used a special cleaning solution.

It’s all in line with museum “best practices.”

The empty rooms await their adornments, but the open air layout of the home makes preserving these period pieces tricky.

“We do have some really old artifacts, and some artifacts hold up better to being out in the heat and humidity than others,” said Rohlwing.

For example, porcelain cups hold up well, but quilts need to switched out to “rest” the fabric.

The furniture is going in first, the little antiques that make a house a home to follow, all to keep history alive.

“So it’s one thing for school children to read about Florida history in textbooks,” said Rohlwing, “and it’s another thing to go into the building to feel the wind blowing, and understand, 'Ok, this is what it was like before air-conditioning.' This is how they did it.”

The next restoration project planned involves "Old Cabbage Head," the locomotive drivers pass on Manatee Avenue at the front of the park.

Admission is free to the park, but donations are appreciated.