From flow-blue porcelain to Fiesta Ware, from matchboxes to cracker boxes, from coverlets to quilts, and from sideboards to bedsteads, our many kitchen and household items remind us of the time when extended families lived and dined together in the home.
Our collection of flour sifters, pressure-cookers, ice boxes and glass milk bottles, dolls and toys, and massive furniture were all part of the well-furnished Knox County home of the past.
And, at the heart of every home was a stove, like our “Peninsular” model, with its beautifully restored nickel and chrome and with many fire bricks inside which were sufficient not only to prepare any meal, but heat a large area of the home as well.
Nearby, the old-time household appliances help us recall the days of hand and wringer washers, cumbersome sweepers, and those flat irons and special ironing boards for sleeves, and even the fantastic new Mangle Iron from the 1950’s.
Many of the beautiful homes built in Knox County during the nineteenth century were designed to accommodate furniture that would seem quite large in today’s homes. The beautiful pieces built at Mount Vernon’s furniture factories during the later 1800’s reflect the fine workmanship of the time.
The style of our hand carved sideboard was also used on hall trees and other pieces by the Banning & Willis Co., often referred to locally as “Black Furniture.”
The McCormick Furniture Co. made caskets for its undertaking business as well as tables, chairs, desks and other pieces. Our dining room table served for many years as the conference room table at one of our early banks, while the mantle came from Mount Vernon’s First National Bank building at the northeast corner of South Main Street and Vine.
Our early bedroom chest of drawers and pitcher & bowl traces back to Ben Butler, longtime tavern keeper and one of our four original town settlers, while one of our beautiful china cabinets is from Lakeholm, the early residence of Columbus Delano, now the Administration Offices for the Mount Vernon Nazarene University.