A tradition started 10 years ago as a fundraiser for the Gillett Area Historic Society has developed into an important part of Gillett’s Christmas celebration.
Held on the same day as Christmas in the Park and the annual Christmas parade and fireworks show, the GAHS Christmas tea and tour of homes invites guests to visit Christmas past.
The tradition began in 2003 when Deanna Smith, who purchased the historic Sohr house at 129 W. Main St., opened her home for a Christmas tea to raise funds for the newly formed GAHS. The Sohr House, built in 1903 as the residence of the George and Emma Sohr family, is one of two private homes included in the 2013 tour.
On Saturday, individuals will have the opportunity to wander through the home and imagine it as it might have been in the early 1900s.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s great fun to have people come,” Smith said.
Tradition says a cattle drive occurred every fall in the town as cows were herded along County Road BB from the farm outside of town, down First Street to the home on Main Street where they stayed over winter.
“My garage was the site of the barn,” Smith said. The present laundry room was the dairy. The Sohrs delivered milk, and customers could visit the house to purchase milk.
Across the street, the Walter Smith home, built in 1910, is home to the GAHS and serves as its museum. It will also be open to the public as part of the Christmas tour of homes.
The home’s centerpiece is a tree decorated in red, white and blue with framed photos of area veterans who served in the Civil War to the present. The veterans tree was decorated in honor of Pearl Harbor Day, which will be celebrated Saturday.
“We want people to remember,” said Lorraine Gentz, vice president of GAHS.
The Walter Smith home was built in 1910 on part of the original foundation built in 1906. The property was occupied by the frame house of Rodney Gillett, for whom the city is named. Rodney and Mary Roblee Gillett settled there in 1858. It was first called Gillett Center.
Nancy Smith, granddaughter of Walter Smith, remembers how much she loved the library in the home.
“When I went to Grandma’s house, I loved to take books from the shelves, close the French doors and read,” she said.
A table set in English tradition can be seen at the museum at 110 W. Main St., and the museum is decorated for the season, featuring Christmas trees trimmed with various themes.
The majority of decorations are antiques that have been handed down through generations. A vintage, early American tree is quite sparse, because as Gentz said, “People didn’t have very much back then.”
Ethnic decorations originate from experiences of historical society members and donations, such as the Danish tree trimmed by Karen Eiseth and adorned with scherenschnitte, Danish paper cutting.
A Japanese-theme tree is covered with origami decorations from a recent foreign exchange student, while a Native American tree is decorated with items originating from the Menominee tribe.
Gentz will host the tour at the museum, wearing a Pommerin costume, a replica of what her great-grandmother would have worn as a fisherman’s wife in northern Germany near the Baltic Sea.
The Korotev-Rickaby home, 133 S. Birch St., will also be open for tours. The home was built on land purchased from Rodney Gillett. Owner Frank Korotev was a carpenter who built many of the houses in Gillett in the early 1900s.
The woodwork, French doors and china cabinets are original to the home.
Coinciding with the tour is a Christmas tea held at St. John’s Catholic Church, 127 Garden St. A history of the church will be available for guests, reminding the community the church was originally located downtown on Main Street.
To add an old-fashioned flavor, wassail will be served at the tea. Wassail is a hot mulled cider, traditionally drunk as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient southern English ritual associated with Christmas and New Year’s as far back as the 1400s. It is intended to pass on good wishes to family and friends.
Those who tour the homes will receive a copy of a 1912 map marked with the locations of the homes in the tour and the site of the Christmas tea.
Categories
