On Saturday we visited the Cleveland History Center of the Western Reserve Historical Society`. The museum includes an early 20th century mansion known as the Hay-McKinney House.
The garden courtyard of the mansion
The residence was built in 1908 for Clara Stone Hay, the widow of John Hay, the Secretary of State during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. After the death of her husband, Clara decided to move back to her hometown of Cleveland to be closer to her sister Flora Mather. However, Clara never made the move because her sister passed away in 1909. The mansion sat empty until 1916 when it was bought by steel magnate Price McKinney. The McKinney family inhabited the house until 1936 when it was sold to the Western Reserve Historical Society to become part of their museum.
Today, the mansion is furnished in period antiques.
Beautiful decoration on the ceiling of one of the rooms
In some of the rooms there are mannequins dressed in clothing from that era.
The dining room
The servants' dining room
The kitchen
With this panel in the servants' quarters, the owners could call the help from different rooms of the house.
It reminded me of the opening credits of "Downton Abbey" in which you see a similar panel with which the owners could call the servants from the various rooms.
The Cleveland History Center is an interesting and worthwhile place to visit.
Lovely! Babs
ReplyDeleteThanks, Barbara. We're taking advantage of these last few days to do a few fun things.
Delete