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An exquisite window with the fall foliage
outside the Seelye Mansion |
Even though every day, we planned on leaving the Sciolaro hacienda no later than 9:00, we never seemed to make it until 11:00 or so. Nonetheless, on our second day we headed out to Abilene Kansas with every intention of spending the better part of the day at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. However by the time we got there it was getting toward noon and we decided to make a quick stop at the Seelye House, grab a quick lunch and then spend the afternoon at the library. Well, we never did make it to the library, telling ourselves that we would put that on the list for the next trip to visit Andy and Lois. "What," you might ask, "kept you from visiting a world renown historical resource?" The answer is twofold: The Seelye Mansion and the Russell Stover factory store and outlet.
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Killa-germ for the fastidious
homemaker. |
The
Seelye Mansion is a marvelous time capsule of early 20th Century American life for the wealthy. As the web site explains, "the Georgian style Seelye Mansion is like a time capsule. Most of its furnishings were purchased at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. The furnishings cost more than the $55,000 that was spent building the 11,000 square feet home.
The 25 room Seelye Mansion was built in 1905 for Dr. A. B. Seelye, who made his fortune in patent medicine with the A.B. Seelye Medical Company. The Patent Medicine Museum occupies a former Seelye laboratory which has been moved to the rear of the mansion." Even in his day, A.B.'s "medicine" had another and more pejorative name, "snake oil." His salesmen roamed the Midwest in horse drawn wagons filled with a variety of remedies. One of his "medicines" does live today as Mentholatum. He didn't limit himself to medicines but branched out into any useful household chemical formulation.
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Marilyn shows the
key hole cover |
In 1920, Seelye had Frank Lloyd Wright redecorate the interior and it has been unchanged since. One of the most interesting feature is that every key hole (and every door in the house - interior and exterior - had one) was covered to prevent peeping! The current owner of the mansion - Terry
Tietjens - was our tour guide. He purchased the mansion and its contents from the Seelye sisters who lived there into their nineties and never married. He is reluctant to let any guest get by with a quickie tour and that was the major reason why the Eisenhower Library awaits our next trip.
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| Marilyn, Andy and Lois |
However, someone did mention that the Russell Stover manufacturing plant had a retail store which one could buy factory seconds, not up to their retail standards for appearance but just as tasty.
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