A&H hosts Holidays at the Waterhouse

A walk into the Waterhouse Residence Museum on any day during the holiday season transports visitors into the past, welcoming them with a smell of cinnamon and banisters laced with garland, just like the Waterhouses would’ve had their home in the 1880s.

It’s Christmas before electricity. In each room of the downstairs there is a small tree, explained Marla Pickelsimer, the tour guide for the Waterhouse Museum.

In the parlor, next to the courting sofa, a small Christmas tree covered with pink ornaments colors the room. On the table in front of the sofa, Pickelsimer points out an oddly-shaped mustache cup, so-called and shaped so that men with mustaches don’t get their facial hair wet while drinking coffee back in the steam age.

Mr. Waterhouse built his house out of heart of pine in 1883 when he moved his family down from New York. In the dining room there was room for a family of four. There were cloth napkins with unique sterling silver napkin rings around each one.

“These were used to designate whose napkin was whose,” said Tami Duff, a Maitland local who participated in the tour.

Out the back door by the dining room, there’s a breezeway, a small area used as extra workspace. An old laundry bucket with an agitator and a washboard for Mrs. Waterhouse hides in the back.

The Art & History Museums – Maitland (A&H) hosts Holidays at the Waterhouse through Jan. 13. The exhibition will be at the historic Waterhouse Residence Museum, 820 Lake Lily Drive, Maitland. Museum hours are from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors ages 55 and older, and children 4 to 18. A&H members and children 3 and younger are free. For additional information, please call 407-539-2181 or visit ArtandHistory.org

People lived in the house until 1989 when, just beyond its centennial, it became a museum. Once the Waterhouse family moved out, a kitchen was added just past the breezeway. Now, there is a cast iron stove, a washing tub and an ice bucket to represent the time period the house was originally built.

The upstairs has three bedrooms and a sewing room. One room is designed to be a young boy’s room with antique toys such as marbles and dominoes. In the sewing room there’s an art piece that many women during that time would make. It looks like a wreath, but is made with past relatives’ hair.

In the family room is where a large Christmas tree bedazzles with an assortment of ornaments. This room has the original pump organ and bookcase that belonged to the Waterhouses, who would spend time writing letters, reading books and the local newspaper. If it was a nice day out, they would prepare to go fishing, explained John Carpenter, a Maitland resident who took the tour.

One of the other bedrooms upstairs is known as Stella’s room, having belonged to Mr.Waterhouse’s 13-year-old daughter. Her original bible rests on the vanity by her bed, an innovative, though anachronous, rope bed that could be tucked and tightened by pulling ropes.

“These beds are where the term ‘sleep tight’ came from,” Pickelsimer said.