Like many of you, I have a slight obsession with the Granthams, their staff, and the stunning setting of Downton Abbey. So it's no surprise that as I was flipping through New England's Historic Homes & Gardens, I imagined Lady Mary's colonial counterpart dressing for dinner in an ornate Connecticut bedroom.
Showcasing 36 homes in the Northeast that are open to the public, New England's Historic Homes & Gardens is full of gorgeous photography and stories about the homes and their former residents. Reading that billionaire Doris Duke once housed camels in her Rhode Island home, Rough Point, is almost as crazy as Mary and Lady Grantham carrying a deceased Turk through the halls.
From simple Colonial to ornate Victorian, it's neat to peek into some of our country's oldest homes. And knowing that they're in my neck of the woods has me planning a road trip come spring, you know, when there's no more Downton Abbey to watch.
Have you visited any historic homes that you'd recommend a trip to?
(Images: New England's Historic Homes & Gardens, William H. Johnson via Union Park Press)
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I work for a catering company that serves events in a number of historic homes/buildings in Massachusetts. I love the mansion at Castle Hill in Ipswich, with its three floor kitchen wing, and gardens and 'casino.' The mansion at Turner Hill (also in Ipswich) is haunted. Glen Magna farm (in Danvers) is cute, but not a favorite place to cater because they do most events in a tent on the lawn and its quite a hike from the kitchen. It does have some really cool hand painted wallpaper in the dining room.
These are lovely, but Downton Abbey they aint! These are all missing that distinctive British feel.
One of the long standing traditions of my High School, Woodstock Academy in Woodstock Connecticut, is during the week prior to graduation, the boys and girls dress up (pink and white are incouraged) and walk accross the street to the Pink House, the home to a Victorian success story or rags to riches home.
http://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/roseland-cottage/roseland-cottage
We have tea in the famous Rose Garden and hear the stories of the Bowden Family and thier patronage of the school and town. My favorite was always Henry Bowden's Niece, who would entertain in the garden and wasn't above bribing local or national official by slipping money into thier palms during a delicate handshake at the turn of the century.
Roseland Cottage's picturesque landscape includes original boxwood-edged parterre gardens planted in the 1850s. The estate includes an icehouse, aviary, carriage barn, and the nation’s oldest surviving indoor bowling alley.
http://www.newportmansions.org/
It is highly encouraged for you to take the full Newport tour in Newport Rhode Island. Some of the houses there are amazing. Everything from a minature Versailles Palace to a Chinese Teahouse (at the Marble House) where Alva Vanderbilt Belmont hosted Suffragette parties in the cliffside chinese tea house she had built
The houses at the Museums of Old York in Maine are pretty awesome. (http://www.oldyork.org/) It's a diverse group of buildings in a really picturesque setting. (I worked there for a summer - what an experience!)
Not homes, but I'd also recommend tours of the movie palaces in downtown Los Angeles on Broadway if the opportunity ever arises. Talk about opulent! The Clark Library interior (run by UCLA) is also jaw dropping. (http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/clarklib/)
I visited Naumkeag this Fall and they actually did a tour focused on the servants' lifestyle. The old laundry rooms and back staircases are intact and the drying yard is just the place where Thomas and O'Brien would have hatched their sneaky plans. If you're in Stockbridge it is worth an afternoon.
Love the windows
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I cannot say enough good things about the Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House in Gloucester Massachusetts. It's such a rare gem. Every time I make a trip with a guest, they pretty much jizz (in their pants) during the first 10 minutes of the tour.
http://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/Beauport/beauport