Historic sites open for summer season today

May 1, 2008
by Marla Miller
Muskegon Chronicle

A re-decorated Hume House kitchen will be unveiled to the public today when the Hackley & Hume Historic Site and other Muskegon County Museum properties open for the season.

Museum curators spent the winter overhauling the kitchen in the Hume House and installing a new exhibit "Making a House a Home" in the City Barn where the tours begin.

The Hume family kitchen has been restored to its 1915 appearance, and visitors will see the room as it appeared when Margaret Hume and her daughters prepared meals for the family there.

Dani LaFleur, collections and technology manager, started working on the remodel prior to the 2006 tourist season and oversaw its completion. The homes of lumber barons Thomas Hume and Charles Hackley were built in the late 1800s when the kitchen was the realm of the servants. By the early 20th century, the kitchen became the housewife's domain with its focus on efficiency and cleanliness.

No pictures of the original Hume kitchen exist because the room was considered utilitarian and not a place to photograph. Museum curators used an inventory of the Hume home taken in 1915, receipts, blueprints and other materials as their guide in the latest restoration at the downtown historic site, according to LaFleur.

The newly restored kitchen has turn of the century appliances including a gas stove, a coal stove and an icebox. Many homes in 1915 had both a gas and a coal or wood burning stove. The new technology of gas stoves concerned people so the older coal or wood burning stoves were kept as more reliable appliances. In addition, the older stoves were extremely heavy and difficult to move out.

A sink and cabinetry were recreated from a slide taken of the kitchen in 1952. A day care center was operating in the Hume home at that time and the slide shows children washing their dishes there.

The kitchen also includes a Hoosier cabinet. The cabinets were popularly used as stand alone pieces for storage. The pantry adjacent to the kitchen features shelves for storage along with the icebox. On display are food packages from the family run Carlson Food Market which opened at Seventh and Clay in 1915.

The museum maintenance staff did the renovation work in the kitchen. Improvements included stripping the room down to the original hard wood which has been sanded and stained. The original molding for the room had been removed. It was found in the attic of the City Barn and was restored and reinstalled.

The historic sites of the Muskegon County Museum are a glimpse into a living past, and a new exhibit, "Making a House a Home" in the City Barn examines products and technology used to run the Victorian Era Hackley house and Hume house and Depression Era Scolnik House.

* What: The Hackley & Hume Historic Site, Fire Barn Museum and The Scolnik House: A Historic House of the Depression Era open today.

* When: Noon-4 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday through Oct. 31.

* Where: Hackley and Hume Historic Site is at the corner of Sixth Street and Webster Avenue. The Scolnik House is at 504 W. Clay next to the Fire Barn Museum. All three sites are less than two blocks from the Muskegon County Museum, 430 W. Clay.

* Admission: Free at the Fire Barn and Scolnik House. Tours are $3 for guests 13 and older at the Hackley & Hume Site.

* Information: 722-0278 or www.muskegonmuseum.org