The Final Drive home

 We woke early just south of Charleston, West Virginia with a day-full of driving to get home.  We decided to stop in Gettysburg, PA for a stretch of the legs and a walk about.    We headed first for a Cross stitch store - of course - called Needle and Thread.      Unfortunately, it was Election Day and it was closed.   It set the stage for a return weekend to Gettysburg.   

On to Gettysburg proper.   This is an area filled with history - Gettysburg Address, battlefield, lovely Civil War era homes, awesome town square in the center of town.    Since this was a somewhat unplanned stop, we relied on the internet to find us a house tour.   

We choose the Schriver House, built in 1860 as the Schriver Saloon and Ten Pin Alley.  It was one of the finest homes in Gettysburg completed just months before the start of the Civil War.

You enter the home to find it outfitted in period furniture.   This would have been the room where the Schriver’s greeted guests and they wished to display their wealth by setting a fine room to greet visitors. 

Crossing the hall, we see the dining room.   With the documented notes of the Schriver’s this room has been set up to appear as it would have after the Union are was housed here.  

I spied a Huswif on the side table.  

 

Upstairs in the central hall, was where Mrs. Schriver set up her sewing machine.   I believe I remember our guide telling us this was an original Singer from the 1850’s or 60’s.  

Coverlets mean so much more to me after touring the Coverlet Museum.   They were truly one of the more valuable items in a home.

This was the children’s room

A second bedroom where more of Mrs. Schriver’s handiwork was done.

Also in this room is a quilt on a frame much as it would have been in 1860.

Across the hall, the guest room

Mr. Schriver’s desk

Civil War Re-enactments are still done at this location.    The hole in the wall was made for the soldiers to shoot out of.

The ‘spent’ papers on the floor of from the soldier’s ‘shoot’.   There would be filled with black powder which was loaded into their rifles.    It looks as if the soldiers were only there the very morning we visited.

View of their garden

In the basement is an area where Mr. Schriver’s employees would have worked.

The other half of the basement is where Shriver’s Saloon was.

Back yard and garden area

Bullet holes in the walls as seen from the alley.   In 1860, the house to my back as I stood here, was not yet built.  

Gettysburg is definitely on the list to return and spend some time at.   

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!