Bedroom and Sitting Room to Oramil McHenry's Period

In contrast to the bedroom to Robert McHenry’s period, this bedroom is much lighter in feel. Gone are the heavy over-draperies. Now there are just lace curtains at the windows with a small valance made of the same material. Gone is the wall-to-wall carpeting. Instead, the floors are covered in hardwood and area rugs. In this instance the rug is still made up of 27 inch strips and sewn together with a border. Gone is the “muddy” wallpaper. The wallpaper is bright and light with coordinated wall, frieze and ceiling papers. The blue color is based on family recollections of this room being referred to as the “blue room”. The chandelier also reflects the introduction of electricity. Half of the fixture is plumbed for gas; the other half has electric lights. The reason for this is because electricity was not dependable. If the electricity failed, there was always the reliability of the gas.

The furnishings in this bedroom are based on a listing in Oramil McHenry’s probate at the time of his death. The probate noted that there was a brass bed, brass hall tree, dressing table, a chest of drawers and a cheval mirror in this room. There was no description so we have based the furnishing as closely as to what the brass bed, etc. would have looked like for this time period.

Above the bed is a chromolithograph of a young girl with a nest of birds. This print was originally owned by the Crow family, early pioneers of the area. On the dressing table is a sterling silver dresser set that includes a mirror, comb, shoe horn, button hook and various brushes. On the chest of drawers are two colonial–dressed porcelain figures manufactured by the Meissen Porcelain Company.

The adjoining room was referred to as a den or sitting room. It too, reflects the blue color scheme. The wallpapers in this room as well as the bedroom are reproductions from the Brillion Collection. Note the complementary papers on the walls, frieze and ceiling. Ceiling moldings and plaster rosettes are of one color to minimize their impact. The chandelier is similar to the one in the bedroom and is both gas and electric. The lace curtains continue the “light and airy” feel of the rooms. There are pull shades at the windows in place of interior shutters. The translucent shades reflect the “modernizing” of the rooms.

Oramil McHenry’s probate lists a desk, box couch, table, bookcase and various chairs in this room. The desk is an original McHenry family piece that was returned to the mansion by the great-granddaughter, Ora Louise McHenry Condrey. In the drawers are stamped “Elmwood Sanitarium”, a leftover from when someone was checking out a rubber stamp. The side of one of the drawers features the penciled name of “A McHenry”. Obviously, Albert McHenry, Oramil McHenry’s son, used this desk for homework and wrote on the side of the drawer.

The portrait on the far wall of the little girl is of Ora Louise McHenry. Ora Louise was the third child of Oramil McHenry. She died tragically as the result of her clothes catching on fire from an alcohol fueled curling iron at her uncle’s hotel in Los Angeles. She was almost ten.

The painting above the bookcase was painted by W.W. Armstrong, a California artist. The books in the bookcase all date from before 1906.

The fireplace mantel in this room reflects the influence of the colonial period. As the result of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, all things “colonial” became popular as people honored the 100 years since the founding of the United States. The spinning wheel is another colonial touch.

The couch and the Morris chair have their original upholstery. Both attest to the increasing comfort that was sought in furnishings. While reclining on the couch, one could listen to Edison’s Gramophone, a brand new invention. Other inventions include the telephone and camera. Oramil had a telephone line installed from his office on 9th Street to this house when his mother lived here. The box camera was of such simple operation that everyone began taking pictures.