Saturday's Trip Back in Time, Pt. 2

Hello!

I'm back with more pictures from the wonderful day my daughter and I spent at the Dallas Heritage Village living history museum on Saturday.  

I normally enjoy things like this, and when it's over, it's over; but this one has stayed with me for some reason.  Maybe it's because we could go into most of the buildings, and they were furnished and outfitted as if someone still lived there and had just left the room.  There was a more personal touch to the whole place than a lot of historic buildings have had that I've visited.  Or maybe my alter ego, the one that thinks I was born a hundred years too late, felt at home.  (Though I did plan where my craft room would go in this next house that I'm about to share.  Including my very 21st-century computer.  Heh.)

Here's the lovely Blum House that I teased you with yesterday.  The super bright sun washes out the soft pink a bit, but it was a lovely pink and white confection perched on a hillside.  

The elegant parlor.  I learned on this tour that Victorian homes always put a lamp on a table in the center of the room, no matter how small the lamp, table or room.  Proper is as proper does.

Here's a different angle so that you can see the player piano.  They must have been very well off to have had one of these!  Katie had never seen one before.

The kitchen flooded with wonderful light.  The stove was very cutting edge for the times (sorry, not shown).

Then we go upstairs...

...and they're very interesting stairs indeed.  There are openings in the first several stairs, and I'm not really sure why.  The brochure didn't explain it, either, but I'm sure it must have been a very modern convenience.  Maybe for warm air to travel upstairs in winter?

Look at that gorgeous crazy quilt, though truth be known the Victorians made crazy quilts more for display and to show off the seamstress' skills rather than for actual use.  Still, it displays beautifully.  Look at the window and the nooks and crannies.  I do love me some nooks and crannies.

The other side of this bedroom.  Love the dressing screen.

The children's room.  More nooks and crannies.

And this was on the other side of the upstairs.  An attic!  And full of cool stuff too!

So remember yesterday I told you I'd show you what was in the turret?

It's part of the attic too!  I mean, whose attic nowadays can boast stained glass windows?  I was thinking the turret would be part of a bedroom, perhaps for a little girl, but nope, it's part of the attic.  Think of the ways this area could be finished out and decorated.  Nooks and crannies galore.  I had to lean waaaay over the barricade for this shot.

It was time to pause for a rest on the double swing in the front yard with my touring companion with a view of the small pink hen house to the right and a stately mansion further back.

Here's a repeat picture of the old schoolhouse. Renner School (ca 1888).  Not sure why I forgot to take an up close picture, but there's not a lot to it anyway.  They didn't spend the big bucks on schoolhouses back then.  

Looking toward the front of the classroom...

...and toward the back.  See those dark sections on the walls?

Those are the original blackboards, complete with ghostly remnants of chalk.  Because back then blackboards were, well, boards painted black!  Pretty neat, huh?

That is the stairwell leading up to the second floor.  (Sadly, visitors weren't allowed up there.)  The school taught children from 1st grade to 8th, and the second floor was for grades 7 and 8, thus called "high school." I always wondered where that term came from.

Time to visit the Living Farmstead (ca 1845).  This is a house with two rooms on either side of a central open area known as a dogtrot or dog run.  These homes were situated to take advantage of any prevailing breezes and can be found all over the prairie states.

Again I neglected to take a frontal picture, so this drawing will have to suffice.  There are several outbuildings including a barn, a blacksmith with a real live working smithy (he was a hoot), a farmer repairing the garden fence so the chickens couldn't get through, a kitchen, a pantry, a smokehouse and a root cellar.

That's a bear skin on the bed as well as a mosquito net.

This is where the family ate - the kitchen/dining/play room.  It was easily 20 degrees cooler in here, and the walls show why.  They had local rocks (limestone, probably) inserted between the logs and then they would have been mortared with mud.  

Checkers, anyone?  I think these were corncob slices.

This is General Sam Houston who was quite vocal during our visit...

...and this is Sharon who was spinning wool sheared from the sheep who are raised on the premises.  Here she's showing us how to card the wool to smooth it out and remove most of the debris that gets caught in it while it's still on the original owner.  She makes things with it, too, for sale in the gift shop.

 
Smile!

And that concludes today's visit.  Thank you so much for joining me.  I'm actually going to share the last few photos tomorrow - there was SO much to see at this place that two days just wasn't enough.  Hope you'll join me!

Hugs!