Backyard History: A Visit to Heritage Hill Historical Park (photos)

[Morrigoon]

And now, the Bennett Ranch House, built in 1909







Awesome windows



Furnishings typical of the era but not original. The fireplace was originally in the corner, but used to smoke badly, so when the house was being expanded (they had 6 kids), Mrs. Bennett asked the workmen if they could move the fireplace. This apparently helped.







A very old radio (vacuum tubes!)







Mr. and Mrs. Bennett



Some repeat here, I was trying to capture the architectural details like the columns. The shelving was originally mesh-enclosed until later glass was put in.





The girls' bedroom





Bathroom





Boys' bedroom



Another bedroom





Can't go upstairs, too rickety



The Bennetts originally had a grandfather clock, but until it/one gets donated to the park they display a smaller grandmother clock instead



One more look at the living room



On the wall in the kitchen



At one point Mrs. Bennett's wood stove was replaced by a new-fangled electric stove. Mr. Bennett purportedly did not think the food tasted as good cooked on the electric stove, he preferred the wood.



Oh, this is pretty cool actually. Before iceboxes (or I guess before ice delivery?) the way to keep things cool was to keep them down in the cellar. But of course, the access to the cellar was outside, which was not always convenient at night or in bad weather. However, cooling cabinets like this could be put in, with vented shelving bringing cool cellar air up into the cabinet. In the hole at the bottom you can see the egg drawer, and things like milk or other perishables could be kept on the higher shelves.



Speaking of seriously cool... this early electric appliance could cook an entire breakfast simultaneously. Sausage would go on the top, the next drawer down toasted bread, below that a drawer for bacon, and at the bottom, a drawer in which you could poach eggs.



And a really early electric toaster



Some other kitchen goodies like a meat grinder and a device for whipping meringues, an orange juicer, and a pepper/coffee grinder



An old broom, a rug beater, a carpet sweeper, and a collapsible indoor clothes dryer (the dowels would be pulled up, then tipped outward. Pretty cool design, actually)



I think the ice tongs and old vacuum are pretty obvious



Two different kinds of butter churn



And one last look into the kitchen



(the end)