hi everyone my name is Ken welcome to this house
today we are exploring the historic glen house located in cape girardeau missouri this house
was built in 1883 and stick around it has a very interesting story and we're about to go inside
as we walk in the front door we come first to the foyer and the foyer is very interesting for this
time period because this house actually had an addition added to it in the 1900s so as we look
up we can see the ornate details and as we do look around i can tell you all a little
bit about the history of this house this house was a wedding present from edwin branch dean
to his daughter lula dean lula married david glenn who was originally from kentucky he moved
to cape girardeau to work with his family in a saloon and later opened a mercantile and a bank
all right so directly across from the front door is this grand staircase that runs up
to the second floor it is actually floating in one of the sections and it has been heavily
decorated with stenciling work and it also has a runner that has been added to the stairs this
would not have originally been carpeted however the pattern on the runner is period accurate
and directly across from the staircase is the front door and as we look around we can see the
original windows which are the same glass on the side and the transom above the door
and then also the stenciling work in here is a lot more intricate for this vestibule and this would
have been an area that was part of the addition in the year 1900 so as we go through this house
we'll notice that a lot of the furnishings and hardware aren't necessarily original to the home
however pieces from the period have been brought into this house so what you see
is a pretty accurate demonstration of what could have or what would have been inside of this house
now one of the original details that i do want to point out is this light fixture
above us it is made with leaded glass and it has an opalescent flare to it so we can
see different colors starting to shine through which is just not something that you get with
modern day glass so let's walk on into the parlor now and as we walk on into the parlor we can see
a lot of technology in this room there's a speaking tube there are lights electric
lights and this house would have been used as a showroom for the mercantile that lula and david
owned so walking into the parlor we can start to see that this house wouldn't have necessarily
been upper class but definitely upper middle class the fireplace in this room is original
and it was never updated to be marble or granite or anything too fancy though it was painted
and the wallpaper on the walls is actually faux silk and a lot of this house was actually
restored from local volunteers these shutters were brought in from a house on the east coast
they actually fit these windows perfectly and the house was from about the same time period
so it was really a blessing that the glen house was able to acquire these and install
them without altering them the hand stenciling on the ceiling was also recreated by volunteers
using patterns that were found throughout the house as we look up this house originally had
electricity which was pretty rare for the time this was one of the first homes in southeastern
missouri to have featured electricity so this light fixture above us is actually original and
once again we're seeing leaded glass here moving on from the parlor we come into the dining room
and let's take a moment to just really take in the space we have a chandelier featuring
electric light bulbs it has a pull down on it we have speaking tubes in here which we'll show you
more about that in just a moment there's even a bell system underneath this chair and this is
where the lady of the house would have sat this way she could have hauled her maids discreetly
without disrupting her guests as we look around the room we can see the lincoln pattern wallpaper
on the walls above me here to either side are transom windows and this would have allowed the
space to breathe because this house was actually designed by a professional architect and it was
set up in a way to maximize airflow throughout the house for cooling in the summer months
as we look up we can also see more original chandeliers there are four one in each corner
and something really interesting is that when they were doing restoration work on this house
the ceiling was actually found to have been painted in an ombre pattern so it's pink that
fades to white and then with original stenciling that runs corner to corner and then ornate plaster
work that everything is centered on in this room and all of the dining room china is staged and is
not actually original so using some imagination here this might have been laid out a little bit
differently whenever it was originally built this is actually the original entrance to the house
so that's just something to kind of ponder as we unravel some of the mysteries of
this home and how it's laid out so let's walk on through here and we're now entering a giant
butler's pantry once again this space here was added on in the addition in the year 1900
it features a sink and a giant built-in which is original to the house and a telephone so this
house actually has three built-in telephones or at least it's wired for three different telephones
and these were some of the very first phones in southeastern missouri
and what's really cool is that the original phone lines for the house were actually found inside of
the built-in at the end of this hallway off of the butler's pantry we turn the corner and we come to
one of the most jaw-dropping kitchens you have ever seen for period accuracy
and the first thing we notice in this room that catches our eye are the speaking tubes
so you could have actually talked in here to call the maid into the kitchen or whichever room you
wanted her in and as we look around we see a stove we see a giant porcelain sink over in the corner
and let's actually take a closer look at that because there is a cherry pitter on the end so
you can imagine picking cherries from your garden and then de-seeding them right here at your sink
so we can see that this radiator here also has a steam vent in it so this would have heated
up your food it's kind of like a microwave but back in victorian time so they did have a way
of heating up the food without necessarily having to cook and this is called a warming rack so you
put water in the bottom and it would heat up your food with steam so before refrigerators people had
ice boxes and when the ice man would come to make his deliveries of ice you would put this card out
and he would know do you want 50 7 525 he would know exactly which quantity of ice you wanted
to fill up your ice box with and as we look behind the icebox there's actually a pantry and it is
stocked with period accurate items that local families have donated to stock the pantry here
at the glen house with off of this kitchen is the summer kitchen and let's go take a look at that
so it's inside of this little box that is built off of the side of the house and it's actually not
even attached to the home right directly across from the indoor kitchen is the summer kitchen
so this is where they would have cooked in the summer months to avoid the house from overheating
and what you're seeing inside of this space is pretty much exactly what it would have looked like
at the turn of the century so before we head back inside i want to take a second to point
out a little detail about the exterior of this home so back in the victorian days it
was all the rage to have faux everything so people would have faux marbles stone blocks
um faux stone all sorts of things so this might look like sewn to you but
it's actually wood that has been shaped and beveled almost like it is beveled limestone
so that's just an interesting and quirky fact to point out about this house so let's head back on
into the back door over here and we're going to go back into the stair hall and finish exploring the
first floor walking back inside we're going to pass the dining room again on your left and the
parlor again on your left rounding this corner around the staircase we come to the library
so there are a few interesting things to note about this space first of all the flooring so we
see this rug in the middle and we wonder okay what are they covering up well this room was actually
designed to incorporate the rug so the frame border we see in hardwood that goes around the rug
was designed in such a way and we can actually see that over here there's a little honesty square
where we can see the cheap wood below the carpet and the carpet would have been a status symbol
it would have been to demonstrate your wealth because this was a time period where carpets
were just being brought into the house and another luxury feature is this bay window at the corner
let's take a look at the stenciling in this room and this hand stenciling was all created by local
volunteers in cape girardeau as well as the hand leafing that goes around the molding in the room
so coming out of the library we're now going to walk upstairs as we arrive at the top of
the stairs we've just cast a landing behind us and we'll get to that in a moment so now we are in the
atrium and this is where the owner of the house would have had her sewing box where she would have
knit um done all that kind of scenes just work now outside is where she actually used to throw her
tea parties so you can imagine all these victorian girls with their corsets and big beautiful dresses
out here on this balcony drinking their tea and just having a jolly old time
and in the atrium we can see these stained glass windows and these were actually brought in from
another house from cape girardeau that was built possibly a little bit earlier
than the glen house was and before we move on to the first bedroom let's look at this old phone
directory this is just really cool because not many people in this area had a telephone so you
can just kind of see who all the other residents who were early adopters of this technology were
off the atrium we're now on the southwest side of the house and this would have been the kids room
and the reason the kids room is on the southwest side of the house is because it stays the warmest
and gets the most direct sunlight this chandelier has a brushed nickel finish
and it runs on both kerosene and electricity as we look around some of the details of this room
there's actually some just really fun toys to point out i know that's not very typical
for us but let's take a look anyways this doll house here is modeled after the sage at piccadilly
so we can also see the pipe organ that goes along with it over on this side of the space
there's also kind of a macabre theme to this house as well we can really pick that up and
the wallpaper border of the space and that was actually designed in 1886 and was actually very
popular to have these sort of grim and enchanting themes in children's bedrooms
leaving the children's room we're going to cut back to the atrium and we're going to come to
the master suite so the master suite is a little different than what we might have from modern day
but this is actually a pretty i want to say technologically advanced room
it has another chandelier also runs on kerosene and electricity and it is centered on a plaster
medallion and let's pan back around the room because this is just absolutely breathtaking
it also has a lot of really period furniture such as a wash basin over here
this is where you can freshen up in the morning we even have an old so far in soap jar so i had
mentioned lula earlier the actual owner of this home it's kind of a contentious issue how exactly
she became a property owner whether the house was always in her name or it came into her name
later on so we mentioned that she used to go out having these tea parties on the veranda let's look
at some of what she would have worn here this is all period accurate clothing and we can see this
is all clothing for a full grown woman but we can see that the corsets brought the waist and
so small so we can just imagine her running around very daintily hosting these parties with her gals
so moving out of the master suite we come to the riverboat room and this would have been the boys
room and it's really telling because of how masculine the space is with the darker colors
the heavier furniture the heavier metal tones especially as well as other antiques and something
fascinating about edwin he was lula's son and he actually became a fashion designer after he
moved out and was actually listed in the phone directory as such and once again as we look
around this room we can see all of these really interesting architectural features let's start
with the door over here because it actually has a burly pine veneer on it so once again
this goes back to the victorian's obsession with just kind of making everything and mundane objects
fake or appear to be something that they're not as we continue to look around the room we can see old
cameras in old photographs of the ss cape gerardo now this boat was rebuilt several times and every
time it was rebuilt it actually ended up sinking so around here it's kind of known as a bad omen
okay leaving the riverboat room we're now going to walk down the stairs to the landing
and behind this door is the sleeping porch so let's go take a look at that
so now we're actually out on the sleeping porch and this would have originally been
screened in or at least partially enclosed and this was to allow the residents to escape the
heat in the summer from indoors and come catch a cool summer breeze while they sleep outside
so we're going to start over here this is where the servant would have lived in the house
and as we walk in i can tell you guys a little bit about the servant who lived here and the servant
who lived here was an irish immigrant and you can see she actually had a really nice setup here and
she would have lived here full time and would have been paid to take care of the children and cook
now leaving the major when we come to another really curious feature of this house
there's actually a bathroom off of the sleeping porch and nothing
in this bathroom is original to the house but it is all period accurate
now let's go back on inside and let's have an interview with the curator of this property
thank you everyone for coming on this tour with us now we're going to sit down with christy merchand
and christie michonne do you have a very special role in this house why don't you tell us all what
you do here so i'm the president of the board of directors of the historical association
of uh greater kick gerardo and we do business as the glenn house so we run this particular
historical house museum that's wonderful and what makes this house worth preserving
you know there are a lot of grand homes i watched you guys did an incredible job with the magic chef
mansion and those big homes like that house or the biltmore big estates but there aren't as many
examples that have managed to to weather time um of sort of that upper middle class victorian
industrial revolution time period so we're pretty excited that this house which is grand in its own
way but certainly not one of those big mega mansions has been able to survive and thrive
and we can show a little piece of what it was like to be an upper-class merchant during
that late 1800s early 1900s time period it's amazing and i think it is just so important that
people are able to see how not just the wealthiest of residents lived but also how just like normal
people or maybe above normal in some ways lived so that's all very interesting tell us a little
bit about your organization yeah this place is really unique um it's actually the the process
of turning the house into a museum started in the late 60s the house has been a historical
house museum since 1974. um and it has never received any state or federal money this is all um
maintained with the love of a community so we are entirely dependent on charitable donations from
our community local businesses and individuals that care about preserving community history
that's amazing and if any of you would like to make a donation to help with the preservation
work of this house please visit the link in the description that will take you to the spot where
you can really make a large impact in the small community of cape girardeau to help to preserve
this house all right christy thank you so much for opening up the doors to the glen house for us
everyone at home i hope that you can take away a really important lesson in preservation
and why it matters to really restore and to love and care for a house
like this please make sure to like comment share and subscribe i'll see you next time on this house
you