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Weekly News September 12, 2005Description
For the story this week, we're back to Auburn Heights' buildings and grounds. In the original kitchen with its wood stove, now Ruth's and my resting place and office, there must have been some sort of ice box, although it may have been in the cellar below. There was a dumb waiter going from a small pantry between that kitchen and the dining room, which opened below into a small room off the laundry room. To get the ice box closer at hand, a small room was added before my time (1924) which is immediately behind the dining room and entered from the aforementioned pantry, with an exterior door as well with steps to the ground. Two small exterior windows in the dining room were lost with the addition of this refrigeration room. My first recollection of this ice box was in the late 1920's. The exterior of its six doors was varnished natural wood, but the two top doors, smaller than the other four, had beveled mirrors attached. Presumably this is where the large cakes of ice were installed almost daily. My father converted this old ice box into an electric refrigerator, with coils replacing the cakes of ice, and a compressor using sulfur dioxide just below in the cellar. A leak in the system would smell like rotten eggs. This room housed the old "electric ice box" until 1934, when the new kitchen addition was attached to the rear of the house, and a new, white, four-door refrigerator was purchased. The old ice box had many years' service ahead of it, however. It was moved to the Yorklyn Gun Club, where it served as a "second refrigerator" until after World War II. The original refrigerator room became my mother's flower room, and Ruth still uses it that way. It is still furnished in mid-1930's decor with its mono-tile panels on the walls, and a black Bakelite counter top.
The "new kitchen" was a 1933-34 addition. William H. Worrall, a contractor in Kennett Square, built it. In the fall of '33, workmen and machines arrived and dug and poured the footers. Then, and very fascinating to a 9-year-old, the stone masons began their wall work. The stone was quarried from a hillside just off Route 82 about 4/10 of a mile from Auburn Heights, barely in Pennsylvania. The original house, carriage house, and tiny pump house had all used stone from this quarry. Then the scaffolding was erected, with ramps for the wheel barrows and strong workmen. By the time they got to the top of the kitchen walls, they were 15 to 20 feet above the ground, and these ramps were great fun to run up and down. When December came, the walls were finished and the roof was on. I remember walking through the unfinished room with its partition studding on daily evening inspections with my parents and my 19-year-old cousin who was staying with us that winter while attending Beacom College. When spring came in 1934, the project was about finished, and consisted of a pantry extended through the old wall from the original small one, a breakfast nook, and the kitchen itself. Below was a recreation room, now my computer room, among other things. Electricity was used for cooking; the wood stove was gone forever.
There are 3 Board meetings this week, the Collections Committee and the Executive Committee on Wednesday, and the full Board meeting on Thursday. In addition, we entertain the Down Syndrome Association Saturday afternoon, and Sunday is the big Hagley car show. We expect the Reillys and Mike May to be with us from Wednesday through Sunday, and Don Davidson and Sara Stanley with their '13 Stanley roadster and Tom Ackerman with his '30 Packard touring arriving on Saturday. Along with Bill Schwoebel's Autocar, we hope for 12 cars in our entourage to Hagley Sunday morning. And they want us there by 9:30! The Autocar and Anne Cleary in the Model 607 are scheduled to be in parades while there.
The DSA Saturday event is from 1:00 to 3:00 P.M. and the Museum will not be open. They will have a train ride, a Mountain Wagon ride and popcorn. It will be well if you can avoid these hours in preparing cars for Hagley the next day, because if you are working in the Museum, our visitors will follow. So far as I know, the necessary jobs are covered for the Saturday afternoon event.
Dale Simpkins and helpers made good progress in stripping paint from the front wheels of the 735. Jerry Lucas provided Dale and Teddy with a brief ride in the Model EX which he was testing, Emil and Jim Personti worked on the vaporizer for the Model K which I want to take to Hagley (this is presently at Herb Kephart's for the welding of new tubing to the old nozzles), and others cleaned and polished cars in preparation for our big day on Sept. 18 (Hagley show). The electric cable is under the driveway as a first step in hooking up R.R. signals. The Model H-5 Gentleman's Speedy Roadster has been fired up once and a short ride taken. Several small problems have hopefully been corrected- I would like Mike May to take it to Hagley next Sunday. Chuck Erikson, Willard Robinson, and Teddy Simpkins continued organizing the shop, and Bill S. and Anne made more key rings for sale in the gift shop. Butch made progress in printing the Stanley booklet (it will sell for $1.00 or $1.50 in the gift shop).
Emil joined Ruth and me when we spoke with Matt Chesser from the Division of Parks about our contracts. We also had helpful suggestions from Mary Hopkins. We are getting closer to final documents, and it was a good meeting. Paul Nicholson plans to attend our Board meeting this Thursday in Lee Jennings' place. Next week, Anne Cleary has scheduled a Publicity Committee meeting at her home on Tuesday, Sept. 20. I believe it starts at 7:30. And we'll be preparing for our September "Steamin' Sunday" coming up on the 25th. Finally, I'm sorry to report that Jim Personti is undergoing tests again for internal problems. We are pulling for you to be 100% again very soon, Jim. Tom
