Although this isn’t about Victorian homes, I will assume that if you like learning about Victorian architecture, you wouldn’t mind acquiring knowledge on the beautification rituals of the women who lived in the homes. This time can often be accompanied by the term “romantic,” but once you learn more about the troubles of a hoop skirt, you might think otherwise! Women had to wear crotchless garments under their dresses because it was the easiest way to go when the gown a person is wearing weighs so much. Also, instead of toilet paper, they had to wipe using old newspapers or leaves while, at the same time, the sanitation systems were no where like the are today and often the bathrooms stunk of sewers for the streets were covered in rain water, human waste, and animal waste. Clean air was not an easy thing to come by in the cities, for many had to burn coal or wood to heat their homes or cook their food.

Victorian hoop skirt                                         Victorian hoop skirt with garments

On top of this, male doctors worried to tell women to take proper baths because it would mean they would have to be naked! How scandalous! It had to be done though, so a bath where women fully submerged themselves were done once or twice a month. Except, it wasn’t just water, it was soap and vinegar. I imagine using vinegar on the body would do the opposite of getting rid of the smell of body odor. Women rarely washed their hair because it was considered a hard progress because they had to mix water with ammonia for their shampoo. However, ammonia is very harsh when mixed with water and would strip not only layers of the hair, but skin too. The alternative to this concoction, was onion juice. At least it isn’t corrosive, but it still doesn’t leave the hair smelling pleasant.

Victorian woman washing her hair 

Clothes were never washed, for the fabrics were too fragile. The only garments ever washed were undergarments for they were created with cotton, a more sturdier material. Instead of deodorant, women would place “dress shields” which were placed in-between the dress and armpit to collect sweat. Perfume was commonly used by women and the most common scent is called “surefire,” made from whale intestines. Instead of face masks, Victorian women would relax before sleep by placing raw meat on the face believing the fat from the animal would rejuvenate the skin. In the morning, Victorian women would do their makeup routine, their secret to their flawless look was lead, removing imperfections with a lethal chemical.

Victorian Era makeup and perfumes

To lose weight, Victorian women were advised to take their water with a lemon or to take weight loss medicines, which is crazy to think they had those at the time. However, the medicines often contained ingredients such as arsenic, cocaine, and tapeworm larvae! If a women wanted to gain weight, she was told to try not to move as much as possible and to avoid sunlight and anxiety.

Victorian era ad for weight loss “medicine”

For dating, a Victorian women would cover her face with a handkerchief to tell a man she loved him and then bite the end of her glove as a sign for unwanted suitors to disperse. Brunette men were told to pair with blonde women and men with ruddy complexions were to pair with olive-skinned women. A scold woman, a woman who couldn’t hide her displeasure or sadness, was considered the worst kind even though most women were given poor treatment; they were considered property of their husband instead of their own being. Overall, Victorian women had a rough beauty routine that often ruined their beauty instead of letting it shine!

Victorian woman with her hankerchief

Victorian furniture, influenced by the Queen Victoria’s aesthetic, is a staple of any chic home, with a design that cannot be defined by one style. Instead this unique furniture style encompasses Gothic, Renaissance, and Rococo with intricate carvings, dark-wood, velvet, detailed needle-work, floral and romanic images. Produced between 1837-1901, this furniture became the first to be machine-made rather than completely hand-made and also the first time for furniture to have coiled springs. This made it widely accessible to many audiences and allowed it to encompass as many genres like chairs, couches, tables, beds, case goods, etc. Victorian furniture continues to reign in furniture, whether it is actually antique, influenced by antiques, or redesigned.

Queen Victoria

I personally love Victorian furniture and collect a variety of furniture pieces. The best places to look for these pieces are antique stores, second- hand stores, garage sales, and flea markets. The best prices are usually when the seller doesn’t know much about what they’r selling and I find the most deals at flea markets and used furniture stores. Usually they just want to get rid of it! For example, one day I went to the flea market and bought a Victorian tapestry for five dollars that is worth 500!

Now let’s look at some chairs that are from this period of beauty so you know what to look for. There are so many different styles that it can be hard to understand if it fits the Victorian-time period. Let me know which is your favorite!

Gothic Style                                                                                  

Echoes the styles of cathedrals, churches, castles and homes of nobles. Usually made with rosewood, walnut or oak with dark colors.

Rococo Style

Accompanied by continuous undulating curves with ornaments in metal. It tries to aim for whimsical interpretations of classical designs.

Renaissance Style

Has exuberant floral decorations with curving legs, sometimes made of marble. The woods of these pieces are usually rosewood, mahogany, and walnut.

The Longest Stretch of Victorian Homes

In the stretch of the 4.5 miles of Summit Avenue stands 375 of 440 of the original Victorian homes. It’s the longest preserved stretch of historical homes in the United States! The most notable ones belonged to the Hill family, who are known for the spread of the railroad system in Minnesota and around. It was build in 1891, it’s 36,000 square feet and would cost 22.2 million dollars to build today! James J. Hill, the owner of the home, was known as “The Empire Builder”, which makes sense considering he could afford such a lavish home. This home is also available to tour and I can state it’s worth touring/ a breath-taking sight (the kitchen ceilings are even coated in gold!)

Original Hill House; Known as the James J. Hill House

James J. Hill also gifted mansions to his children on this street, imagine being gifted a mansion! His children’s homes are still around today, but I am not sure if they are still owned by distant relatives or other rich people. What’s interesting is the vast difference in architecture styles, which shows that his children had a variety of taste in homes.

Hill’s son’s gifted home; Made in inspiration of Southern homes

However, the very first home ever constructed dates back to 1855, even before Minnesota officially became a state. In 1859, six more homes were constructed, but sadly the last remaining home today from the original six is the Stuart house.

The Stuart House; One of the original six homes. 

Another home worth mentioning on this street is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s home, the famous author who wrote “The Great Gatsby”, the book everyone read in the 9th grade.This home isn’t available for tours, it’s just the James J. Hill house that visitors can see the inside of, but the outside is still gorgeous.

Fitzgerald home 

This street was not unique, every major city in America had streets of Victorian homes however, unlike the cities of New York or other historically places, Minneapolis chose to keep the homes and use them for other things (like apartment places) instead of destroying them for modernization. This has left it a unique sight because no other state has this amount of Victorian homes on a historic street left up to enjoy. Would you want a home on this street? I know I would!

The Carson Home in Eureka, California 

Where else would the most beautiful home be other than California, the state of broken dreams. The Carson Mansion, located in the old town of Eureka is considered to be the most beautiful Victorian home in the United States of America. Originally built in 1884 for a man named William Carson, who was a major woodsman and a co-founder of the Doolbeer and Carson Lumbar company; later bought out by the Pacific Lumber Company. Carson helped to build many dams and ship wood all over California, contributing to the growth of the state. When starting the construction of his home, Carson stated, “If I build it poorly, they would say that I am a damned miser; if I build it expensively, they will say I’m a show off; guess I’ll just build it to suit myself,” so despite not knowing him, a person can get a feel for his personality through the architecture of his home. The home cost 80,000 dollars (equivalent to 2,605,630 dollars today) and after the Carson family left the home in the 1950s, it was purchased for only 35,000 dollars by a private country club. This lead the home to being not open for tours to the public sadly and is only available to paying country club members.

What makes this home unique is it is a mixture of many different style of Victorian architecture styles including Eastlake, Italiante, Queen Ann and Stick (next week’s post will go into how to differentiate the styles). Many have described the home as “a baronial castle in Redwood.” What are your thoughts on this home? Do you think it is truly the most beautiful Victorian home in the United States?

Photos of the interior

Introduction

Although they are beautiful, Victorian homes exposed a variety of dangers to their residents. Start off this learning journey with stairs and learn about why they are called the “hidden killers”. Then move on to learn how toilets leaked methane into homes leading to explosions and how arsenic, a deadly poison, was used to create wallpapers for homes. After that learn how even the material in the house contained deadly material, asbestos and then how refrigerators leaked deadly gases! Lastly, how electricity often caused fires in homes. It was brand new and many had little knowledge on safety with outlets.

1.) Stairs

Have you ever tried walking up a narrow staircase in a Victorian home? Now imagine carrying a tray or any other item up this tiny, steep steps or even wearing the long dresses of those times.These staircases were often created in a hasty manner, resulting in staircases that led to many injuries and deaths. When I was growing up I lived in a Victorian homes and my sisters and I often had nasty falls down those staircases. Also for urban explorers, it’s important to be careful when walking up abandoned staircases, especially when they’ve been left unattended for so long which can result in rotten wood and bad injuries or death. Although I cannot find the exact number of those injured in Victorian times, stairs are still a “silent killer” with over one million emergency visits occur each year!

Example of narrow and steep staircases

2.) Bathrooms

Imagine using your bathroom, an amazing invention in the Victorian era, and all of a sudden your “water closet” (Victorian term for “toilet) explodes! This could lead to burns or death to those who were in the bathroom at the time of the explosion. The reasoning for this is methane coming from human waste buildup in the sewers. Toilets were new and they often would leak up the sewers resulting in methane leaking into the homes. At the time, if you needed to use the bathroom at night, a person would often bring a candle to accompany them on the trek to the toilet. However, when open flame comes in contact with methane it results in an explosion! Thankfully with modern technology this is no longer a common issue, however, there are still around 40,000 toilet related injuries each year.

3.Arsenic- Dyed Wallpaper

Many Victorian homes are accompanied by beautifully designed wallpaper that contain amazing details. However, if you come in contact with wallpaper that comes from either the 18th or 19th century and contain the color green, be wary! Arsenic was used to give these green hues not only in wallpaper but in clothing too. They didn’t know that arsenic is very poisonous and would lead to many deaths, just to get that pretty color green. In fact, arsenic cause at least 1/3rd of all poison related deaths in this period. Sadly today, drug-overdoses are the number one leading poison related death.

4.) Asbestos 

Today we know that Asbestos fibers can lead to cancer and death, but in the Victorian period it was know as “the wonder material”. It was used from everything to clothings and homes! Even to this day we don’t know how many people this effected in these time period. Today, globally 255,000 deaths related to asbestos occur today.

5. Refrigerators

During the Victorian age, like toilets, refrigerators was this really cool new invention. However, they were leaking gases into homes like sulfur dioxide, ammonia and methyl chloride! These gases attack respiratory systems and could potentially lead to deaths or disabilities. There are no statistics to show the amount of deaths that occurred in total.

6.) Electricity 

Until the Victorian time, electricity was only used for lighting. However, a burst of new electronic technologies were founded and things such as ‘electric tablecloths’ were entering homes. Also, a common problem was the overuse of outlets resulting in electrical fires (often a problem today too)! Although Victorian homes burnt down at an alarming rate, no one kept total count. However, on average today, there an average of 358,300 house fires every year.

Questions For the Reader

What surprised you most? What scared you most?

When it comes to old buildings, how can we not talk about the haunted buildings? If you’re into the paranormal, you may have even seen this building featured on the famous show, “Ghost Adventures”. Located in Duluth Minnesota sits an old building, where from 1912-2002 housed hundreds of patients. “Nopeming” can be translated to “in to the forest” in Ojibway and was first created in attempts to slow down the deadly TB that was killing many throughout the country. At its peak it housed over 400 people, including nurses and doctors! It was believed the patients could be healed through exposure to the fresh air and the surrounding nature. Sadly thousands of TB patients passed within these walls. Once the cure was found it was transferred into a nursing home in the 1970s-2002.

Left: A picture of the outside of Nopeming Sanatorium    

Right: Inside of a Nopeming patient room

Many short films have taken place under a variety of titles, however one can be watched on the streaming service IMdB, called “Sanatorium”. I personally have never viewed the film, but its average rates are a 4.9/10. The movie poster does look creepy though!

Movie poster for “Sanatorium”, a horror film filmed in Nopeming

Sadly you used to be able to tour these grounds, but they were closed forever due to it not passing the fire safety rules. It was closed on October 19, 2019 and shockingly I was able to tour the grounds in July 2019, one of the very few tours left of its career. We all had to park away from the ground and walk together. This was creepy because I chose the night tour and the website gave sketchy vibes! Anyways we walked up to the building with the setting sun behind it and one of the first things I noticed was that bars were placed on each window. It made it feel almost like a prison and the tour guide informed us this was to prevent patients from jumping. I remember my heart dropping because it made you realize how in pain each patient was in. The guide also informed us that it housed not only TB patients but help patients from the LGBTQ community, mental illnesses and wives who weren’t listening to their husbands.This led to incredible understaffing and overcrowding of the facilities even with the extensions.

This photo shows the side of the Sanatorium and the bars placed on the windows to prevent jumping

The first site you see when you enter is the church, where many funerals were held. You can see the paint peeling off everywhere and falling to the ground. A major warning to any explorers or old building lovers, do not touch the paint. Many lead paints are left within these buildings and if you touch it, it can be absorbed through the skin. Anyways, we then saw many different patient rooms where abandoned bed frames stood and dust covered the floors. We only had flashlights to see in these rooms which gave it those Scooby Doo vibes where a monster might jump out! We were unable to see patient rooms located on the third floor due to water damage, but they were looking to fix it in the future. Also, the “death tunnels” where the bodies were transferred out of site was also not included.

#1 Hospital room number /  #2 Inside the Sanatorium’s Church/ #3 An abandoned patient room

Another amazing sight where I caught a very creepy picture, was in the stage room. Patients were encouraged to stay active and many patients through plays and other performances on the stage. There in the corner by the stage stood a really old chair and now I have seen many ghost photos, which means the most obvious place to catch a ghost picture is on chairs, stairs and peeking corners. Check it out and tell me what you think!

The “orb” was caught on the chair, almost like someone was sitting there

Overall it is a shame that this building was unable to be utilized for other purchases. An attempt was made in 2005 with a transaction of one million dollars! However, the owner was caught for embezzlement and sent to prison. Although if it was bought at this time, it’s been sitting for far too long! I hope to post most buildings where I can post donation sites but for this old building I am not sure there is hope. The cremation building is destroyed (not sure you would want it), the third floor is water damaged and lastly there is lead paint and mold (RED FLAG). In my next post I will find a building with some more hope to continue to save in the state of Minnesota. Let me know what type of buildings to talk about next!

Beautiful architecture is believed to be a connector to the past and the present. We often look at these buildings with little respect to the design, hard work and materials put into it. These pieces of art are often torn down and replaced with buildings that lack character and are a copy paste of the neighboring building.

Why is that?

Early modern architects believe that 19th century buildings are too ornate and felt we needed to be liberated from these time-consuming designs. Adolf Loos, a leading modern architect,  argued that “to decorate a building with anything pretty was a sin against the profession of an architect.” Is that so? Or do modern architects lack the skills of the past and patience to create a work of art. Beauty in our environment grounds us to it and allows a sense of pride in our communities.

The goal of this blog is to resurrect the pride we once had in our surroundings and to help bring reasoning to why the historic buildings in our communities should be loved, taken care of and overall not destroyed!