Victoria Mansion

 I found out in class that Victoria Mansion was open for the holidays. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to go and get some of my site visits done. I went over there on December 2 in the morning, just when the site said they started doing their tours. When I arrived and went in, I noticed that they do not do the traditional tours of the mansion where you have to follow a tour guide around for a few hours. In fact, they had a tour guide set up in almost every room at the house. There are roughly 10 rooms from what I have seen. So when you wanted to move to a different room, you were free to do so and if you wanted more information about that particular room the tour guide was there to inform you. Honestly, I really liked that set up. A lot of the guides were very interesting and knowledgeable about the mansion. I was the youngest by at least 40 years, including the people visiting, which was pretty entertaining. When I went to the second floor and walked into the Turkish Smoking Room, an elderly guide was sitting there waiting to talk. I asked him a few things about the room and then the house. I asked what was on the third floor and wondered why no one was allowed. I assumed correct and in fact it was unsafe and did not meet fire safety rules in regards to public tours. I asked him where the water supply came from during the time the house was built because they had running hot and cold water, which was very rare, and he said they had a tank that collected water on the roof. Wrong question to ask. This man went on for at least 10 minutes about how he wish had that when he was growing up and how we take technology for granted nowadays, which is true, but I thought it was amusing.   

The house was amazing, to be honest. I wish I could have seen it without all the Christmas decorations. My favorite room was the library room. Very cool mansion and the tours guides were very brief but very helpful and informative, which I liked.

Historical Background:

The mansion was built between 1858 and 1860 for Ruggles Sylvester Morse. Morse was a native to central Maine but had made his money in New Orleans as a proprietor of hotels. According to one of the tour guides at the mansion, Morse had left New Orleans to move back to Maine to avoid the yellow fever. However, the information I found online was that he had moved back after an unsuccessful trip to California during the Gold Rush. I’m not too sure which is true, maybe they both are. What I found interesting was that Morse had a picture of Robert E. Lee in his library. Working down in New Orleans he must have been a southern sympathizer. I wonder, however, how he got away with having the picture of Lee up in his study. Maybe because he was rich? In fact, the house was estimated to be worth $70,00 - $100,000 during the time whereas most of the other houses around Portland were only roughly valued at $5,000. We can get a sense about how rich Morse actually was.

Library/Study

Morse died in 1893 and his widow had sold the mansion to J.R. Libby. The family had preserved the mansion all the way up to 1940 when it was threatened to be demolished and replaced with a gas station. Dr. William H. Holmes had bought the property and had saved it from destruction. Currently, the Victoria Mansion, INC., a non-profit, owns the building and maintains it. In 1970, it was considered a National Historic Landmark and rightfully so. The time period it was built, it was considered one of the most extraordinary buildings in Maine for the interior design and the exterior architecture, and today arguably. It is a very amazing mansion that preserves the vision of a luxurious life during the 19^th century and what money could buy during that time. Many things that we take for granted and many that we use today; running hot and cold water.

 Sources: Brochure & tour guides