Back Porch

Mrs. Van Slate lived in that end room over there that we will get to in a few minutes. She lived on the main floor so she could put wood in the fire at night and get up early and make breakfast so that when the borders came down from upstairs then they would have a meal waiting for them.  I would compare it nowadays to a dormitory; the people lived upstairs and had their meals and a common area to gather on this floor. An interesting thing is that the people that lived here, probably more than half of them were ladies. It was somewhat uncommon for ladies to live on their own and especially at that point in time, it was not common or not socially acceptable for them to be walking alone and unescorted, especially in the early morning or late evening hours. But because this building was located a block or two from the main business area most of the borders that lived here worked in either an office or in a store downtown, so it was acceptable for ladies to walk this block or two to and from the boarding house. Can’t you just imagine the dining room with borders sitting here having breakfast and Mrs. Van Slate in the kitchen making it and then they would be off for the day.  The dining room chairs were actually made by the craftsmen at the Rhinelander Boat Company and we know this for sure because Marge Peters donated them and her husband owned the Boat Company at the end.  Unfortunately we were not able to ask if they made for the owner of the company use or perhaps the thought of getting into a different market as the wooden boat business was declining. If you look at the chairs, you will see the expert craftsmanship.  The fireplace was always only ornamental as it is made out of wood and never a functioning one. There is a chimney behind it and we envision that there was probably a box stove on both sides one in the dining room and one in the living room to help heat the building. In the very beginning they heated the house with wood stoves.  Sometime later a furnace was installed in the basement , but early on there would have only been the kitchen stove, these box stoves and then a box stove up in the hall upstairs that would've heated the building so it probably got pretty cold in the winter.

I would like to mention that we sell a few things in the front hall and one of them is this booklet called Woodland Echoes.  A lady wrote her experiences when she came here's a young child. Her father had homesteaded some property north of Rhinelander and she later wrote down her memories of it and they were put into a booklet. It was written initially at the fourth grade reading level, but I have no idea what that is now because now children are reading pretty well in kindergarten. The book is good for children to read for a couple of reasons and one of them is it shows just how hard life was back in those days. One example she makes reference to if she got up in the morning at the same time as her parents in the winter there would be a sheen of ice across the water bucket as it was that cold inside the cabin.

I would also like to point out there is a sign in each room that lists some of the major items in that room and who donated them. So if you know somebody that may have donated an article here we should be able to find it on these sheets.