Photo Provided The Belmont County Victorian Mansion Museum is getting ready for an afternoon filled with food and activities during its Kentucky Derby Tea Party at 11:30 a.m. May 3.

BARNESVILLE — The Belmont County Historical Society invites people to its second annual Kentucky Derby Tea Party for an afternoon filled with Derby-themed activities.

The tea party will be at 11:30 a.m. May 3 and usually lasts an hour and a half at the Belmont County Victorian Mansion Museum, located at 532 N. Chestnut St. in Barnesville.

Guests will experience an afternoon of Derby-themed activities, such as a Derby hat contest, which is optional, and a style show featuring the museum’s hat collection.

Tickets must be bought and registered by noon Friday. Tickets are $27 online or $25 via check or money order. Reservations can be placed online at the Victorian Mansion Museum’s website – belmontcountymuseum.com – or by calling board member Brock Rogers at 740-310-7093. Seats are limited, but some are still available.

Rogers said this is an opportunity to enjoy a day hearkening back to the Victorian era filled with food and activities within the setting of the museum. A tour of the museum will be included in the event.

Rogers said because the Kentucky Derby’s origins date to close to when the museum was built – construction of the former home of John W. “Diaz” and Sarah (Clark) Bradfield in the Romanesque Revival style began in 1888 and the first Kentucky Derby in 1875 – the tea party acts as a kickoff for the museum’s season, being the first big and most-attended event.

All of the money raised goes to help fund the museum, which is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization.

The event will have food catered by Donna Clark of Barnesville, and Rogers described her food as fantastic.

“It’s kind of unique,” Rogers said. “A lot of places have teas like this, but just being able to have it inside of the museum, which is of the right time period for the Victorian era, and in such a way as it would have been decorated at that point in time, it really makes a venue.”