Quilt Sisters at The Victorian House - Millersburg, Ohio

 It's our last full day in Millersburg and a little sightseeing seems in order.  The Victorian House was spotted by several of us and there is a desire to see it.  Next door is the Glass Museum and that's been mentioned as well.  Once the decision is made, I guess only three of us are interested and so away we go.  We had laughed pretty hard over the way the prices are listed on their website but once we arrived, all was made clear.  As we entered, it was as though time stood still here.  I LOVE this place.  Come along as we explore and I'll share a few tidbits that I picked up along the way.  This staircase is beautiful!  It is the first thing we see upon our entry into the Reception Hall.  The staircase has seventy-eight hand turned spindles with acorns at its entrance.  The staircase, of white oak, was made in Europe, with a craftsman sent over to install it.  The twenty-two plaster lions, which are the Brightman Coat-of-Arms, were intact.  Lee monogram is in four places on the cove.  One hundred and eighty-six lions were stenciled on the wallpaper going up the stairs and down the hall.

From the reception area, we move into the Drawing Room, but check out the floor.  Isn't this just gorgeous?  All original!!

From a step ladder, the artist's name, W.K. McCalmon, can be seen above a turret window.  Solid brass is used for nearly all light fixtures.  Sliding "sandwich" doors are oak veneer on one side and sycamore on the other.  The parlor settee straight chair and platform rocker are late Victorian.  The tall clock was brough here from Pennsylvania in the early 19th century.  Notice the Silas Uhl painting on the south wall.  Look at the three-dimensional flowers along the top of the walls ---- they are amazing.  Light fixture that can handle two types of energy.

Next is the Althea Fisher Maxwell Music Room.  The lincrusta wallpaper was imported from England and is original.  The embossed design has been cleaned and restored.  The centerpiece of the Victorian music room is the square grand piano,  also called a box grand.  Made in the 18th and 19th centuries, they were popular because they were smaller and more stylishly accepted in households.  The strings run from left to right.  The rectangular piano is nearly extinct now.  

The kitchen is next.  Lena Lee Unkel lived in this room, heated with a coal-burning stove.  Note blackened wainscoting.  The speaking tube is located here.  There is one on each floor.  To call the maid on the third floor, you blew harder into the speaker/receiver, which would make all the tubes in the house whistle.  The stove is early 20th century.  A Hoosier cabinet sits in the corner and had storage space for pantry items, and a zinc worktop.  We couldn't roam quite as freely in this room

Directly adjacent was both of these rooms - with separate entrances.

Across the hall was the dining room with original painted burlap and also the hand painted cove and ceiling are original.  The side board, or buffet, is of European origin, probably 1860-1875.  It is of Circasian walnut, and all relief work is hand carved.  The collection of bells have been donated by the Antique Festival Committee.

One the second floor, we find the Bedroom/Sewing Room.  Notice the sewing machine?  Check out the blue tile fireplace and there is also a large walk-in closet with windows.  There are 11 large closets in the house.  Columns on the fireplace are of hand-grained simulated oak.

Child's Room.  In the corner there is a marble-topped washbasin, one of six in the house.  The red painted canvas on the walls is the original.  Two Brightman sisters shared this room.

The Master Bedroom - eight layers of wallpaper were removed and the style of layers one and two were faithfully copied.  There is a five-window turret and built in washbasin (which I didn't manage to photograph as it is in the corner on the other side of the desk and I was fascinated with the desk.  The 97 windows in the house include eight bay windows and each floor boasts a turret which, in the early 1900's, was a sign of wealth.

Close up of the quilt on the bed.

The desk that fascinated me.  How cool is this?

Warm amber-colored windows (one broken by a storm) make the bathroom bright on dark days.  Here, you will find a wooden toilet tank that is copper-lined and a marbled shower stall, with faucets on the wall outside the shower stall.  There is a small adjoining room on the righ that contains a sink and chest of drawers.

The Medical Room - originally a bedroom, as were all rooms on the second floor, this room has been provided by the local medical community and displays items from area doctors and dentists.  It includes a display of old pharmacy items from Hoffman's Drugstore in Millersburg.  It's actually kind of a scary room.  The smaller signs make ya cringe and I'm not sharing them.

The show globe is an elegant symbol of the profession of pharmacy.  The use of show globes as a symbol of pharmaceutical and medical care dates back four centuries.  Pharmacists prided themselves on their ability to create vibrantly colored liquids to fill the globes.  Many experts believe show globes were used by apothecaries during the Great Plague of London in 1655 to direct the sick to their shops, after healthy citizens and doctors had fled the city.  The steadfast apothecaries used the bright liquid to communicate to the frightened public that medical attention was still available.  Sailors landing in England knew that a show globe in a store window meant medical treatment was available there.  In early America, a red show globe could mean the town had some kind of quarantine or communicable disease, while a green globe indicated the town was healthy.

A signature quilt on the wall.

Up to the third floor and the first thing I spot is another really weird item.  It is Victorian Hair Art.  Appealing to the tendency among Victorian women to incorporate the importance of friends and family into their work, hair served as a tangible remembrance of someone.  Often, close companions exchanged hair as tokens of friendship.  Hair was sometimes taken after a person's death as a means of honor or remembrance.  The hair was looped around a knitting needle and twisted with fine wire to create loops to create jewelry, mourning wreaths and artwork.  Yuck.  This was in the third floor hall next to a VERY large piece of furniture.

This floor also holds the ballroom, so there was a restroom for guests.

Also, the Maids Bedroom is located here.  It is furnished simply, like most servants' quarters of that era.

Into the Ballroom - This room would have been used for parties.  On the music side there are two melodeons, the oldest from Switzerland, circa 1825, and a late Victorian style melodeon.  Rocking chair and "mammy bench" were made by owner of the Inn in Nashville, OH circa 1875. 

At the rear of the ballroom, there is a window that was used as the Solarium.  Plants could be nurtured in this area and the windows could be opened during the summer to provide some cross ventilation.

From the top to the bottom.  Down in the basement we discover Steam and Heat baths and "Stalls".  Twenty four light bulbs and the small boiler furnished the heat for this bath.

The first stall - now a display room - has a tile-topped table and a small window to peek through.  These were probably massage rooms.  In this first room - there is also steam available, so it could have been a steam bath or sauna too.

The basement also contains the summer kitchen.  It was also used as a play and game room for the Brightman children.  The stove and refrigerator belonged to Lena Lee, the last occupant of the house.  One of her husbands, Mr. Unkle, who was an inventor, used the large room as his laboratory.  He created the tilt steering wheel and many other personal care items like shaving creams and perfumes.

This room is set up to be an original post office mid 1800's from the village of Saltillo, Ohio.  The post office desk and pigeon holes were hand made by local carpenters.  The wood stove was a most common heat source in the 19th century.

Here is the basement speaking tube that I spoke of earlier in this post.

Well, that's it for the house.  Pretty cool, but there is one more item and if you made it this far, you're gonna want to find the Girls Trip post for days 9 and 10.  It's at this point that the lady working at the house informs us that the hotel we are staying in is haunted.  Yep.  Check out that post.  See ya later.