a victorian excursion
Had an adventure over the weekend. It was raining where I live, so I decided it would be an excellent day for a trip to Villa Louis, a beautiful Victorian country house that was once the retreat of a wealthy family, and is now a museum.
The drive was two hours through endless country roads with nothing but cornfields for scenery, but at the edge of a tiny rural town like any other, there was the lovely riverside estate, along with lots and lots of horses and carriages who were there for the weekend for a Carriage Classic Pleasure Driving Competition. The weather was perfect, all sunny and lightly breezy, and we watched the pony carts (too cute!) compete in the enclosure before going on to see the house, which was absolutley stunning.
It's an 1870's brick Italianate that sits on a little hill overlooking a pond, weeping willow trees, and the Mississippi River. And inside it's stuffed full with gilded age gorgeousness. You can look at books with pictures of Victorian houses all you want, but nothing really prepares you for the massive scale of the furniture in a proper Victorian mansion. With 12 foot ceilings, a floor-to-ceiling gilded mirror in the entryway really makes an impression! Can you imagine being a child and living in a house with an enormous life-size marble statue of yourself in the parlor? The William Morris wallpaper, the velvet curtains, the monumental wooden bedsteads with half-testers festooned in drapery, the chippendale sofas, the stained glass windows! It was like a candy store for history geeks! But I think I actually preferred the little girls' room, with it's pastel colors and dolls and toys all over, it reminded me of Samantha's from the American Girl books!
It was all very lovely, and I only wished I could have gone when it wasn't so crowded, with a group of friends in period costume, maybe, so I could have made the whole fantasy complete, if only for a minute or two! Maybe next time! The day rounded out with a ride in a horsedrawn carriage along the river, which was unbelievably lovely, and then back to modern reality with a stop for a hamburger and donuts before heading home. All together, a very sucessful day, and I hope to travel to more historic houses next summer! (If only they were all so opulent and luxurious!) *sigh*
The drive was two hours through endless country roads with nothing but cornfields for scenery, but at the edge of a tiny rural town like any other, there was the lovely riverside estate, along with lots and lots of horses and carriages who were there for the weekend for a Carriage Classic Pleasure Driving Competition. The weather was perfect, all sunny and lightly breezy, and we watched the pony carts (too cute!) compete in the enclosure before going on to see the house, which was absolutley stunning.
It's an 1870's brick Italianate that sits on a little hill overlooking a pond, weeping willow trees, and the Mississippi River. And inside it's stuffed full with gilded age gorgeousness. You can look at books with pictures of Victorian houses all you want, but nothing really prepares you for the massive scale of the furniture in a proper Victorian mansion. With 12 foot ceilings, a floor-to-ceiling gilded mirror in the entryway really makes an impression! Can you imagine being a child and living in a house with an enormous life-size marble statue of yourself in the parlor? The William Morris wallpaper, the velvet curtains, the monumental wooden bedsteads with half-testers festooned in drapery, the chippendale sofas, the stained glass windows! It was like a candy store for history geeks! But I think I actually preferred the little girls' room, with it's pastel colors and dolls and toys all over, it reminded me of Samantha's from the American Girl books!
It was all very lovely, and I only wished I could have gone when it wasn't so crowded, with a group of friends in period costume, maybe, so I could have made the whole fantasy complete, if only for a minute or two! Maybe next time! The day rounded out with a ride in a horsedrawn carriage along the river, which was unbelievably lovely, and then back to modern reality with a stop for a hamburger and donuts before heading home. All together, a very sucessful day, and I hope to travel to more historic houses next summer! (If only they were all so opulent and luxurious!) *sigh*