Random Home Tours
When I was small my mother took us to the Newport Mansions and that started an interest (not obsessive) in home tours. This post is to talk about all the random home tours I have done, which I recommend that you take the time to travel out of your way a few miles to experience. Just starting with a few and will add to this list periodically. Because these tours date from way back, I don’t always have photos. But I will always link to a source website or article and suggest that you can do a google search to find out other information if one of my stories peaks your interest. Sometimes my facts and stories will different than what is online. This is because I am usually recalling what a docent said to me years ago and these things are not always documented - this is why you should always take the docent led tours! And away!
Houses that are worth a tour:
Picture of Buckmister Fuller and Anne Hewett in their Dome Home.
Fuller Dome Home - Carbondale, IL: The inspiration for me to write this list was the trip we took to Chicago to witness our son’s graduation from Graduate School. On the way we stopped at the R. Buckminster Fuller Dome Home. Perhaps I should preface this with the note that I grew up near Woodstock, NY - where the geodesic dome home was plentiful and smelled like patchouli. So this visit was nostalgic for me. After calling to book an appointment, a fantastic board member and self described “buckyphile”met us at the site. They are currently fundraising to build a visitor center and sculpture park, but until then you must schedule to visit. This is the house he built and lived in while teaching at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1960. Highly restored after years of neglect, this house felt warm, spacious, and luminous. See the pictures below for more details of our trip.
A little more about “Bucky” from Google:R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller (1895–1983) was an American visionary, architect, inventory, and futurist.He is best known for inventing the geodesic dome—a highly stable, lightweight, and spherical structure—and for coining popular terms like "Spaceship Earth" and "ephemeralization" (achieving more with less). Fuller dedicated his life to solving global problems related to shelter, energy, and poverty through innovative design. He strongly believed that humanity's survival depended on the efficient management of Earth's resources. He is best known for: The Geodesic Dome (strong structure made of triangular facets that distribute stress evenly), Dymaxion Designs (a series of experimental, highly efficient inventions, including the Dymaxion House, a mass-producible, affordable home, and the Dymaxion Car, a fuel-efficient, omnidirectional vehicle, and the Dymaxion Map, a polyhedral map projection of the Earth's surface resulting in a map that has reduced distortion compared to other world maps). And his development of a geometrical-philosophical framework called Synergetics. He is really kind of fasinating. Read more about him here and look into purchasing a Dome Home of your own here.
This is the North parlor of The Old Manse - inhabited by a pipe smoking ghost.
Old Manse House - Concord, MA:: (Spoiler: That time I smelled the ghost) The Old Manse was built in 1770 for the Rev. William Emerson, grandfather of transcendentalist writer and lecturer Ralph Waldo Emerson. It served as a Red Cross station during the revolutionary war and the location of the “shot heard around the world” could be seen from the window. Writers Emerson and Hawthorne both spent time as residences of the house. My mom (favorite house tour exploration buddy) and I visited the house in the late 1990’s when I lived in Boston. We were late for the last tour of the day, so when we entered the house we has missed the docent’s history of the first room. The notable stories I remember include the conversation written on the attic walls between Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau - we were not allowed to climb the ladder up to the attic to see this first hand. Another is seeing the writing of Sophia Hawthorne etched into a window pane with her diamond wedding ring. “Man's accidents are God's purposes. Sophia A. Hawthorne 1843”. Wikipedia says there are more etching but I only remember seeing this one. We were told that the Landlord was upset until Hawthorne published the Scarlet Letter, and then it was a selling point. Because my mother and I were such interested tourists, the docent offered to take us back to the first room that we missed. I immediately smelled pipe smoke when we entered the room. I looked out the front window to see if one of the other tourists had been smoking, but no one was there. When the first preacher and owner of the home lived there you had to speak both Greek and Latin to enter this room - meaning it was a men’s smoking lounge. I asked the docent if this is why I smelled pipe smoke. But, no. I was smelling the ghost of Rev. Emerson the elder. When Hawthorne lived there (please note that Hawthrone was involved in all ghost stories in the Boston area at that time) he claimed to hear the preacher’s footsteps pacing back and forth in the bedroom where he wrote his sermons - you can see the worn floor boards. She told us that studies have been done and pipe smoke would not linger on painted walls since the 1930s - which was the last time it was inhabited. She went on, not everyone can smell the smoke and I should consider myself lucky. I have done web searches to see who else had smelled it, but I only came back with haunting of a small ghostly puppy in the backyard - no pipe smoke stories until this one.
The Blue Stripe in ay Alcott’s Bedroom
Orchard House - Concord, MA: In 1857, Amos Bronson Alcott purchased 12 acres of land with a manor house that had been on the property since the 1660s for $945. It is named after the orchard of 40 apple trees on the property. The Alcotts stayed in this house until 1877 and it is where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women. My take aways from this house have to do with art and the youngest sister, May - the artist. The first antidote is that because paper was so hard to come by, May would draw protraits of visitors on the walls. In fact, they have several of these drawings preserved with acrylic coverings. I love this! The second story is in May’s bedroom. There is a prussian blue border at the top of the ceiling. This was gifted to her for her birthday by her sisters who painted it as a surprise. I don’t see a mention of this online anywhere, so can’t provide a citation but I distinctly remember the docent telling us this story and how pleased May was because it was her favorite color.
Master Bedroom at the Gropius House
Gropius House - Lincoln, MA: This house was built by Walter Gropius in the 1930s while he was teaching at the Harvard Design School. Mr & Mrs Storrow gave him $45,000 and he built this magnifaence little home that is full of light and unconvential materials – for that time. My take aways –the materials and the art. Dishes out of melamine and floors made with cork, now a days these materials are common place, but then these were experimental and inexpensive – Gropius was on a budget. I look at materials differently after being in this house. The house is mostly white and gray. Much of its character is in the built details of the structure. Except for the glorious orange Iraqi rug, hanging in the master bedroom. Just, yummy. Visit the website to see descriptions of all the rooms and objects. I enjoy the confluence of materials and styles and cultures – this memory embodies that brightly.
Houses addressed in other blog posts:
Graceland
Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway
Unsinkable Molly Brown’s House
Paisley Park
Robie House
Dymaxion House - RE: see above about Buckminster Fuller.
Houses I have not written about yet but you should still visit:
Ca’ d’ Zan: The Ringling Circus Museum and Mansion - Hello? A tree collection? Goals!
Wilson Art House
What other houses should I tour? Send me a message or coment below and let me know?
Just found this website of houses in New England while I was writing this post. How could I have missed some of these. No google then.
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