By Denise M. Baran-Unland
This story originally ran in the Herald News (www.heraldnews.suntimes.com), December 2007.
When Andrea Magosky of Joliet shared her love of architectural history with her son Seth, how could she have known she would spend her retirement preserving and managing a museum?
“At the time, a good day for us was throwing the kids in the back seat of the car with lunch meat and stuff and going to look at the old houses,” Andrea said.
Because of her influence--which included raising Seth in the Hickory Street home that architect F.S. Allen built for himself—Seth dreamed of the day he would purchase a Joliet Victorian home and convert it into a museum.
Unfortunately, Seth only lived six months in the Hiram B. Scutt mansion at 206 Broadway Street in Joliet when he died suddenly of Marfan Syndrome (a connective tissue disorder) on March 17—St. Patrick’s Day—2007.
But his parents Patrick and Andrea Magosky are determined not to let Seth’s dream die, too.
They have not only assumed the expense of owning the P. Seth Magosky Museum of Victorian Life and Joliet History, they are also managing it and resoring it. Despite local interest in their project, convering an old mansion into a museum is a challening project for them.
“It’s been a lot for us to take on,” Andrea said. “But we just keep going.”
Although events in November and January with the Will County Ghost Hunters Society were sold-out, the museum’s first fundraiser, a Christmas-themed cocktail party, had a scant turnout due to an ice storm and raised only a few hundred dollars. Brutally cold temperatures and plenty of snow days reduced attendance at the mansions monthly Victorian teas and the number of phone calls the Magoskys received for tours.
“We’re getting more calls now that the weather is warming up,” Andrea said. “A senior’s group from Downer’s Grove wanted to have an event here last year and someone told them we didn’t exist. We want people to know that we’re here and that we rent the museum for a number of things like parties, showers, business meetings and small wedding receptions.”
Period antiques are scattered throughout the house and the Magoskys have taken great pains to use only color schemes from the time period. They recently replaced four chandeliers and their hardware because "they just weren’t right for it," Andrea said. A donated pipe organ has found a home on the third floor and a concert grand piano resides in main floor’s double parlor.
They have also made a number of repairs to the home, including plastering holes in the walls and the ceilings in the lower level servants’ quarters--where the original kitchen and dining room are located-- and on the main floor. Any boards missing from the hardwood floors were replaced. Boards of lesser quality than those in the man floor were used in the servants’ quarters, Andrea said.
Athough the lower level rooms are now used for parties, the Magoskys would like to see the original dining room and kitchen restored to its correct use. Presently, the only available kitchen is on the second level, but, although it has a commercial refrigerator and a commercial sink, it can only be used to warm foods. Scutt’s bedroom was converted into the museum’s main dining room.
There are three bedrooms on the third floor as well as a work area and a library of Seth’s books. A collection of 20 or so dolls, from the Civil War period through the 1950s, reside in the lady’s bedroom, but Andrea hopes to create a special area for them on the fourth floor. She would also like to convert unused space on the third floor into a ballroom.
All that takes money the Magoskys just don’t have. That is nothing new to Andrea. Lack of money is what nudged her love of architectural history in the first place.
When Andrea was a little girl, her family was so poor they could not afford a car. This meant if Andrea needed to go somewhere, it was often on foot. She varied her routes from her Hacker Avenue home, just to look at all the big houses on that part of town. That love of architecture spilled later onto Seth.
“Seth would go out and walk all over different neighborhoods, looking at the houses. He always said he wanted to own a house on Eastern Avenue and when he grew up, he did just that,” Andrea said. “When I worked as a visiting nurse on the south side of Chicago and Seth was off school, he’d ride with me to look at the houses. He became very familiar with that area.”
At 13, Seth, then a student at St. Patrick’s Catholic Grade School, delivered his first architectural presentation, an extra credit project for him. He later majored in the History of Architecture at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He wrote a regular column about local historic homes for the Herald News and authored “Historic Impressions: The History and Architecture of Joliet Homes.”
Seth was also nationally known for his expertise on the Civil War era and did a number of historic portrayals, most notably John Wilkes Booth and Marshall Field. “He had been booked until the end of the year,” Andrea said.
Tours of the museum are by appointment only. Call (815) 723-3052. Visit http://www.museumofvictorianlife.org/.
This story originally ran in the Herald News (www.heraldnews.suntimes.com), December 2007.
When Andrea Magosky of Joliet shared her love of architectural history with her son Seth, how could she have known she would spend her retirement preserving and managing a museum?
“At the time, a good day for us was throwing the kids in the back seat of the car with lunch meat and stuff and going to look at the old houses,” Andrea said.
Because of her influence--which included raising Seth in the Hickory Street home that architect F.S. Allen built for himself—Seth dreamed of the day he would purchase a Joliet Victorian home and convert it into a museum.
Unfortunately, Seth only lived six months in the Hiram B. Scutt mansion at 206 Broadway Street in Joliet when he died suddenly of Marfan Syndrome (a connective tissue disorder) on March 17—St. Patrick’s Day—2007.
But his parents Patrick and Andrea Magosky are determined not to let Seth’s dream die, too.
They have not only assumed the expense of owning the P. Seth Magosky Museum of Victorian Life and Joliet History, they are also managing it and resoring it. Despite local interest in their project, convering an old mansion into a museum is a challening project for them.
“It’s been a lot for us to take on,” Andrea said. “But we just keep going.”
Although events in November and January with the Will County Ghost Hunters Society were sold-out, the museum’s first fundraiser, a Christmas-themed cocktail party, had a scant turnout due to an ice storm and raised only a few hundred dollars. Brutally cold temperatures and plenty of snow days reduced attendance at the mansions monthly Victorian teas and the number of phone calls the Magoskys received for tours.
“We’re getting more calls now that the weather is warming up,” Andrea said. “A senior’s group from Downer’s Grove wanted to have an event here last year and someone told them we didn’t exist. We want people to know that we’re here and that we rent the museum for a number of things like parties, showers, business meetings and small wedding receptions.”
Period antiques are scattered throughout the house and the Magoskys have taken great pains to use only color schemes from the time period. They recently replaced four chandeliers and their hardware because "they just weren’t right for it," Andrea said. A donated pipe organ has found a home on the third floor and a concert grand piano resides in main floor’s double parlor.
They have also made a number of repairs to the home, including plastering holes in the walls and the ceilings in the lower level servants’ quarters--where the original kitchen and dining room are located-- and on the main floor. Any boards missing from the hardwood floors were replaced. Boards of lesser quality than those in the man floor were used in the servants’ quarters, Andrea said.
Athough the lower level rooms are now used for parties, the Magoskys would like to see the original dining room and kitchen restored to its correct use. Presently, the only available kitchen is on the second level, but, although it has a commercial refrigerator and a commercial sink, it can only be used to warm foods. Scutt’s bedroom was converted into the museum’s main dining room.
There are three bedrooms on the third floor as well as a work area and a library of Seth’s books. A collection of 20 or so dolls, from the Civil War period through the 1950s, reside in the lady’s bedroom, but Andrea hopes to create a special area for them on the fourth floor. She would also like to convert unused space on the third floor into a ballroom.
All that takes money the Magoskys just don’t have. That is nothing new to Andrea. Lack of money is what nudged her love of architectural history in the first place.
When Andrea was a little girl, her family was so poor they could not afford a car. This meant if Andrea needed to go somewhere, it was often on foot. She varied her routes from her Hacker Avenue home, just to look at all the big houses on that part of town. That love of architecture spilled later onto Seth.
“Seth would go out and walk all over different neighborhoods, looking at the houses. He always said he wanted to own a house on Eastern Avenue and when he grew up, he did just that,” Andrea said. “When I worked as a visiting nurse on the south side of Chicago and Seth was off school, he’d ride with me to look at the houses. He became very familiar with that area.”
At 13, Seth, then a student at St. Patrick’s Catholic Grade School, delivered his first architectural presentation, an extra credit project for him. He later majored in the History of Architecture at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He wrote a regular column about local historic homes for the Herald News and authored “Historic Impressions: The History and Architecture of Joliet Homes.”
Seth was also nationally known for his expertise on the Civil War era and did a number of historic portrayals, most notably John Wilkes Booth and Marshall Field. “He had been booked until the end of the year,” Andrea said.
Tours of the museum are by appointment only. Call (815) 723-3052. Visit http://www.museumofvictorianlife.org/.
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