Happy Wednesday and New Year’s Eve! It has been a really fun year, but alas this is the last edition of Collection Items That Blow Natalie’s Mind. Up fiftieth-third: The House Arguably our most important collection item is the house itself. And it never fails to blow my mind with its intricate details, numerous staircases, and rooms full of glorious artifacts. Without the house, we wouldn’t have much of a museum, now would we? What we know today as the Seward House has changed significantly over the years. The original structure was built in 1816 as a Federal style 10-room townhouse. There were four rooms on the first and second floors, and two rooms (the kitchen and dining room) down in the basement. Throughout the house you can still see some hints of the original structure, including original exterior brick in the dining room and different wood floors. In 1848 the northwest wing of the house was added, bringing the kitchen and dining room to the ground floor. Seward was not in Auburn for much of the construction, but Frances kept him informed on the comings and goings of carpenters and masons through her letters. On September 20, 1848, she wrote: ““Our house is making as rapid progress as we have reason to expect. The masons have to day completed their work in the wooden part. Next come the painters. The canopy over the front balcony is finished and is very pretty. There are so many closets &c. to be finished that it makes infinitely more work than was anticipated. No time is lost. [. . .] They have finished the road and are now drawing gravel for the front walk also for the well. The bottom of which has at length been reached.” Lots of rain slowed things down, but everything was completed by January 2, 1849 when Seward paid Leonard Chaterton the final bill of $1,720.95 for work done in the kitchen wing and servants quarters of the house. However, on January 15 Frances complained to her sister: “A rapid thaw has succeeded our very cold weather of last week. The snow is melting away. I feel sometimes as if we were melting with it, our new house leaks in so many places that we are literally deluged.” Needed repairs were made, and today we use the 1848 addition as our visitor entrance and gift shop as well as storage and offices. In 1866, NYC architect Edward Tuckerman Potter designed the south wing of the house, which included the drawing room, dining room, stone piazza and South tower. Work began in July 1866, but the wing was not full completed until 1868, in time for the Chinese Embassy to visit. Janet prepared the Auburn home, writing to Seward: “We have nine rooms, and propose, if satisfactory to you, to entertain here Mr. & Mrs. Burlingame, Miss Cushman, two Chinese dignitaries, Mr. Risley, the Misses Risley, one secretary or if you prefer a foreign minister, and four gentlemen that can be put in the office and Aunty’s room. There will be two beds in each room.” The addition of the south wing completed the transition of the house from a classical revival design to the style of an Italian Villa. The expenses for the wing were shared by Seward and Will Jr., who expected to care for the house after his father’s death. Additional improvements were made to the house after Seward’s death. In 1877, upper and lower main hallways were altered, including the addition of the grand curved staircase. In the 1890s many repairs were made to the interior of the house without disturbing the exterior lines of the home. By the turn of the century, both the interior and exterior of the home looked much like what visitors to the Museum see today. William Henry Seward did not move into the house until October 1824 when he married Frances Adeline Miller. Frances’s father, Judge Elijah Miller, built the home for his family, which included his two daughters, his mother, and his sister. When young Henry asked to marry the Judge’s daughter, he was told yes, but only if he moved into the Miller home. This was not exactly common practice at the time, but nevertheless Seward moved in to the home. Judge Miller went on to live 27 more years. When he passed away in 1851, he left the home to Frances. She died only 15 years later, leaving the house to her husband. When he died in 1872, the home was passed to William Henry Seward Jr., who left it to William Henry Seward III in 1920. It was in 1951, when William Henry Seward III passed away that the house was left to become a public memorial to his grandfather and father. It is largely because the home when straight from the Seward family to become a museum that we are so lucky as to have the home’s original contents. As you may have learned from this series of posts or from a tour of the Museum, the Seward family kept everything, and we are so glad that they did! An article in the Auburn Daily Herald remarked on the incredible collection of objects within the house in 1891, most of which remain here today: “Within the homestead is a valuable collection of curiosities which was collected by the Secretary. They were collected by him personally from the countries through which he traveled. Since his death his son has added largely to the collection which is one of the most valuable private collections in the world. Among other interesting features of this noted home is a foreign art gallery containing 130 portraits of various rulers and statesmen throughout the world who were in office while Mr. Seward was Secretary of State. Among the many eminent men who have visited beneath this hospitable roof might be mentioned John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Louis Kossuth, Charles Sumner, Thurlow Weed, Grant, Johnson, Farragut, Sherman and many others. It is said that the old kitchen was one of the most popular stations of the Underground Railroad, and that many a poor slave who fled by this route to Canada carried to his grave the remembrance of its warmth and cheer. The famous Seward poplars which stand sentinel before the residence were planted the same year in which the house was built.“ I feel very lucky to come work within these magnificent walls every day. If only they could talk! Every Wednesday throughout 2014, I posted a collection item that blows my mind. I will be compiling them all into one easy-to-view photo album. For those of you who have enjoyed these posts, don’t worry! We will still continue sharing collection items with you in 2015. We have plenty more to share. You can also check out our Collections website where Collections and Exhibits Manager, Matt MacVittie, posts Curator Talks and more: sewardhousecollections.wordpress/ Happy New Year to everyone! And thank you so much for your support in 2014!
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 21:45:00 +0000
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