![]() ![]() The second floor is home to the unique Moon Window, a nod to Asian culture which was a popular part of decor in this time period. The woodwork in the fireplace, mantel & built in sideboard and so full of detail I could spend hours admiring it. So pretty that I honestly can’t imagine every using it – I wouldn’t want to ruin it. So surprising to find in a home of this age! Beauty and function – what is better than that? The surprise? These beautiful tiles serve another purpose as well, as they provide radiant floor heat. The tiles surrounding the hearth are beautiful – greens, yellows, blues – and the ceiling features beautiful floral and greenery motifs. The architecture of this home is classified as part of the Aesthetic Movement, therefore featuring imagery, colors & textures that you would see in nature and this certainly showcased in this room. Fireplaces & mantels are obvious focus points in homes of this age, and this one did not disappoint. After delivering safe power to the rest of the house, he continued to have his library on some type of separate system so that if the power did go out, his library would not be affected. Eustis was no fool – in the testing of the delivery of the electricity to the home, he first hooked up his own library to ensure it was safe. While the actual physics behind it are well above me, the fact that he essentially made the home self-sufficient, by creating & utilizing such a technological advancement for the time, all on his own is amazing. Eustis, is that he figured out how to create his own power to bring to the house. But perhaps the most impressive feat of W.E.C. He had a dark room in the basement as he is credited for most of the old photographs you’ll see when visiting the house, but also had a “tinkering” room in the attic (see the “Eye Spy” section below for where this room was located!). He was a Harvard graduate, specializing in Engineering, and throughout his life owned mines & a smelting company. Apparently William Emery Channing Eustis, who built the house for his newlywed wife Edith Hemenway Eustis, was quite the smarty pants with varied interests.Historic New England bought the property from them and did some large scale renovations to restore the original wall colors to some of the rooms, re-applied gold foil to the fireplace arch ways, and much more – but I find it amazing that the previous owners not only lived in the house almost as is, but took such great care of it. While the third floor is closed off to the public, the guides indicated even the bathrooms were not renovated much when the family was residing there full time. 2014!! That was only four years ago, and really, the only upgrade I saw that screamed 21st century was a lonely dishwasher in the kitchen (which was actually pretty funny to see). One of the most fascinating things about this house is that a family resided there up until 2014.I was so happy that I could do that here! And all I did was get yelled at by security guards for touching, or attempting to touch. Somehow that makes me feel more connected to it’s story. Touch the marble sculpture, touch the brick ruin. About two years ago I took at trip to Italy – a place full of historic places landscapes, and objects – and all I wanted to do was touch. One of my favorite things about this house? Anything that was not roped off you could touch or sit on. It is right up my alley with seemingly tons of detail in the woodwork & decor. But – I was thrilled to see that the Eustis House in Milton, MA was open so I headed out on a Saturday to explore.īy simply looking at the Historical New England website, I knew I was in for a treat with this home. It seems as though I chose a fairly terrible time to start this, as most of the homes had just closed for the season, leaving only a few open through the winter months. Once I settled on the idea of this challenge, I got to work trying to plan out a rough schedule of when I would be able to get to all the homes & sites. ![]()
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