Wise Homestead – Erie, Colorado

Last week Klown, Tater and I went to the open house at the Wise Homestead Museum in Erie, Colorado.  Erie is a tiny town to the south of us about 7 or 8 miles.  I had read about the homestead in the paper the week before.  The house was built in 1874 and at least five generations of family lived in it before it became a museum.

It was, literally, like walking back into parts of my childhood.  This tiny little white prairie house with the green woodwork and the wood stoves and a kitchen full of old-fashioned gadgets reminded me of not only my paternal Grandmother’s house, but the paternal family farm, where I spent plenty of summer weeks as a child.

The homestead is now part of the Erie Historical Society, but family who grew up in the home are still around taking care of it and giving the tours.  I talked to a brother and sister, well into their 80’s, and a daughter and granddaughter, who had spent a lot of time in the home.  The brother had made the gingerbread cookies and strings of popcorn and cranberries that decorated the Christmas tree in the parlor.  The sister was in the kitchen, wearing a kelly green sweater and Christmas apron and asking visitors if they knew what all of the kitchen gadgets were on the shelves.

The house has been carefully restored, including the original flooring, woodwork, and wallpaper.  Several places in the wall had been “cut out” and covered with glass and a frame, to show the construction – plaster, lath, and newspaper!  There were three wood stoves in the home, which seemed excessive for a home that size, except this house is sitting on high prairie in Colorado, and the winters were brutal in such a home.  There were three bedrooms upstairs, all heated with a single stove-pipe coming up through the floor from the first floor.  A fourth bedroom sat off the kitchen.  There was even a “cheese room,” which was kept cold and was on the north-west corner of the house.  This is where they kept the milk, butter, cheese, and eggs during the winter.  There was also a root cellar for storage of winter vegetables.

In one of the upstairs bedroom, a volunteer was stationed selling items in their little gift shop.  She was 85 years old and had been born and raised in a “soddie,” a sod home, in Nebraska.  She’d also spent 50 years in St. Louis with her husband, and they had retired to Colorado. She said in the winters in the soddie, the windows didn’t fit tight, and the wind would blow so hard that they would wake up in the morning with snow sprinkled like powdered sugar on their wool blankets.  I told Klown that if he complained ever again about being cold in the mornings in our house, where we turn down the furnace at night to a measly 65 degrees, that I was going to slap him.

I had so much fun touring the house and talking to the family members who’d lived there.  Many of the kitchen gadgets were things I had used or knew, but one was brand new to me.  I’ll explain it below when I show the pictures.  They are looking for volunteers to help with activities next summer, and I’m giving serious thought to volunteering.  It would be right up my alley to help them with a living museum like this.

Christmas tree

This Christmas tree is decorated with small glass ornaments, candles, cranberry-and-popcorn garland, and iced gingerbread cookies.  The brother told me the tree came from the National Forest (we have several in our area) and was the “top”
of a large tree that had been taken down because of pine beetle infestation or disease.  They sell the “tops” of these trees to fund their work in the park.

Wood stove in the parlor

This was the wood stove in the parlor, in the process of being restored.  It’s stove-pipe went up through the ceiling and through one of the bedrooms.  Note the rug; there was a similar rug on the floor of the guest bedroom in my paternal grandmother’s “town house” in Bonnots Mill, Missouri.

Original Bread MachineThe sister called this the “Original Bread Machine.”  The instructions for making the bread are actually stamped on the lid, and sound an awful lot like the instructions for my electric bread machine.  They read as follows:

Put in all liquids first, then flour

Turn 3 minutes

Raise in pan

After raising, turn until dough forms a ball

Take off cross-piece, lift out dough with kneader

That’s it.  That’s all there is to it.  You then put the dough in the pan(s) and let raise, then bake.  Pretty nifty.

Hand Stencilled wallpaper

This wall paper was hand-stenciled and very lovingly restored.  This was in the parlor and dining area.

Wall paper enhanced with Mica

This wall paper was “enhanced” by using the mineral Mica in the paint.  Notice the figure on the left is blue, but at an angle with a flash, the one on the right looks white from the reflection of the Mica in the paint.  The brother was very proud of this particular wallpaper, which was in the kitchen.  His grandfather had hand-painted those figures with the Mica-laced paint to get that look.

Wood Stove

Small woodstove in the downstairs bedroom.  To the left are the stairs leading up to two bedrooms that were over the kitchen and this back bedroom.  The stairs were shockingly steep and narrow. 

Restored wood floors

Spectacularly restored wood floors.  In some places the knot-holes had fallen out and you could see through to the ground beneath the house. 

antique bed

Note the stove-pipe on the left.  This is the only heat the room would have received.  Because the roof is so peaked here, you’d best be careful getting out of bed in the morning!

Dress Form

The sewing area was in the corner of the kitchen.  This is a fully-adjustable dress form.

Sewing machine

Treadle sewing machine in a beautiful tiger-oak cabinet.  This was still operational.

Sewing basket with mending

A little patchwork in progress.

Rug Making Basket full of supplies

Rug-making supplies in an old hand-made basket.  I have recently come upon a box of rug-making supplies, and now I really want to try it!

Wood Cook Stove

I was able to identify most of the things on and around this cook stove.  It is in incredible shape for its age (circa 1880) and is still fully functional. 

antique baby doll

I have a huge love affair with baby dolls.  This one was in a side parlor, a room that had been filled with newspaper clippings, photo albums, and many antiques that had belonged in the house or were from the same era. I bought an ancient baby doll at a sale this past spring and when my mother was here this fall, she made the baby a bonnet, a diaper, and booties.  Seeing this doll cared for in the same way made me smile.

Wise Homestead Ready for Christmas

The house dressed up for the season.  It was a cold, grey day, but perfect for such a house and the warmth it held.  The house appears to have been built in two parts (which would also explain the way the bedrooms were separated – a set of stairs went to two upstairs bedrooms, and a different set of stairs went to the other upstairs bedroom).  There is a tin roof on the older part of the house, and shake shingles on the newer part.  Notice also the three chimneys.  The house was built in the 1870’s, which makes multiple chimneys and wood stoves a bit unusual for the time.  As was typical of older houses, however, there are multiple doors in and out.  One to the kitchen, two into the living room, and one into the main bedroom.

Double Outhouse

A two-seater outhouse.  This would have been necessary because of the size of the family that lived in it.  A house with four bedrooms meant there were quite a few children!

Small barn

The small barn was where they served us cookies and hot spiced cider.  It was full of old farm tools.

barn porch

A fancy barn – it had a nice portico to protect one from the elements.

One Response to “Wise Homestead – Erie, Colorado”

  1. Elizabeth Miller says on :

    My grandparents had a bread machine just like that. I thought it was very fascinating and have never seen another one until this one. A lot of the things you showed brought back memories of my growing up years.