Hearthstone House

Now that it's finally October, all sorts of spooky events are going on. Of course, that pesky virus is still around but at least we're getting used to dealing with it. It's only been a couple of years, ha!

Since traveling is still dicey, His Madness has been looking around our area for something to do and discovered The Hearthstone Historic House Museum. It's located just a few minutes away in the nearby town of Appleton so we went to see it for the first time last summer. The docents, who were very entertaining, told us about their "haunted theatrical productions", so naturally, we immediately bought tickets without actually knowing what we were getting ourselves into.  

What makes this particular house historic is that on the last day of September in 1882 it was the first private residence in the world to be illuminated by the world's first hydroelectric power plant. That was a lot of "firsts" for a sleepy lumber town. Although two weeks earlier, Thomas Edison's plant in New York City was actually the very first to generate electricity. It ran on steam and the Appleton plant was generating its electricity from the Fox River. According to their web site the house still has the original Edison electroliers and light switches. When it began they only had electric service from dusk to dawn, I guess the only thing they needed it for was the light. ha! Another surprising piece of info, a restaurant we've been going to for years is in the old power plant. It was an illuminating visit.   

The house is done in the Queen Anne style of architecture and is a real work of art in itself. All the tours are guided so instead of ropes and headsets you get to wander around amongst all the quirky period furniture and tchotchkes while the docents demonstrate the gramophones - that are everywhere. It's been nicely restored and really seems more like a residence than a museum.    

So what about the Haunted Hearthstone: Sequential Killers of the Victorian Age - Part IV ? That all began with a walk down these stairs into the cellar. Where we learned it was a theatrical production. Members of the audience (with appropriate precautions and no more than a few people at a time) would be moving from room to room throughout the house. In each room an actor or two would portray a different serial killer while the docent filled us in on the grim details.    

It was a great production, very well done but sadly the rooms were so dimly lit it was impossible to get any decent photos. In fact, it was hard to see where we were going at all. I didn't ask but I doubt if they would've let me bring a tripod, ha! Wouldn't it be embarrassing to stumble in the dark and wipe out an original light fixture? Maybe I'll volunteer next year and see if anyone wants their portrait done. The only scary part was that the stories were true. After an hour of listening to the horrors of what had been done to the victims and the huge number of people who had been poisoned or killed by these people portrayed in the production, I had completely lost my appetite but was ready for a drink.

I did get a photo of this talented volunteer who entertained us with spooky organ music while we waited our turn to be tortured. I loved his wild feather boa and mask, maybe I'll have to rethink this year's Halloween costume.

After an hour of trying not to trip over things in the dark, while wearing a mask in a house with no air conditioning on an 85 degree day, we happily exited through this door. I might volunteer there but I'd probably pass on being in the audience again. It looked great and everyone played their parts wonderfully but knowing the facts were true was just too creepy for me. Guess I'm just not a horror person, ha!

Happy October everyone, sorry I forgot that yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow.