On the Sorensen Home Museum tour, they learned about "chamber pots" that people used at night when there were no bathrooms. They made dolls from white handkerchiefs, cotton and ribbons.

And during a tea party, they learned how to drink from a cup like little ladies - by lifting their pinky fingers.

"The kids didn't get bored with anything," said Stephanie Murdock, Kylie's mom.

Years ago it faced demolition, but now the renovated, 1890s-era Sorensen Home is a quaint tourist attraction and used by people for business meetings, wedding receptions and Victorian birthday parties.

Visitors enjoy the museum because they can sit on the furniture, pick up the antique items with their hands and it's free, said Lesley Goeckeritz, the museum board president.

"It gives them a sense of how people lived back then, because we live in a very upscale world now," said Goeckeritz, who has been a museum volunteer for six years.

The home was begun about 1880 in this south Salt Lake Valley farming community. The two brick rooms that are still part of the home today were built in 1890.

It belonged to a Danish immigrant couple, Martina and Peter Sorensen, who had 10 kids. The couple used to host church services in Danish at their home and worship in their native tongue. The house remained in the family until 1977.

In 2001, folks raised tens of thousands of dollars matched by the City Council to save the house from being destroyed.

In the end, citizens raked in about $240,000 for the city-owned house to be moved, renovated and refurnished.

The museum was open to the public a year later.

Today, six years later, the home is run by a dozen volunteers. There are no city funds allocated to the museum, so it depends on state grants, donations and fees from private events to pay the bills, Goeckeritz said.

The home is valued at $350,000, she said.

The museum sits in a residential neighborhood in between the Draper City Cemetery and the Draper City Historic Park. It has a kitchen and four rooms - one that has been turned into public restÂrooms; another into a candy shop.

When Stephanie Murdock was looking for a place to host Kylie's birthday party on a budget, a friend suggested the Sorensen home.

She could have spent as little as $50 for a dozen girls for a two-hour party with no food included, but decided instead to double the total by adding some extras and making her daughter's cake.

Museum volunteers Goeckeritz and Helene Terry, dressed in long skirts and ruffled blouses, served as party hostesses.

Murdock, a teacher who lives in Taylorsville, said she was impressed with the party and added it was a great deal.

"I liked that the ladies were so organized, and they kept [the party] at a well-balanced pace," she said.

During the party, Goeckeritz and Terry gave the girls a tour of the home and showed them how women used to curl their hair and how men used to shave.

They helped the girls make bars of soap and dolls as the women told them stories. The group later played a game in which a thimble was hidden and a girl tried to find it as the others sang a jingle.

The party ended with a tea party. The girls drank lemonade out of kid-size tea cups and ate cake, and a trip to the candy shop, where they got to spend their wooden nickel.

As for the birthday girl, Kylie, the party's highlight was having "all my friends there."

"I liked playing the games," she said.

jsanchez@sltrib.com

Things to know if you go

The Sorensen Home Museum, 12597 S. 900 East in Draper.

* COST: Free

* HOURS: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday. Noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Saturday open by appointment.

* WHAT TO EXPECT: A historic furnished home from the 1890s with a candy shop. Available for children's parties and other events.

* TO VOLUNTEER: Book a group tour, or schedule an event, call Lesley at 553-8163. www.draperÂcommunity.org/Sorensen