Self-Guided Tour
Transcribed from the audio guide at a small historic house museum. A visitor recorded it on her phone during a weekday visit in late October and later posted the audio online. The museum’s website describes the tour as having seven stops.
Stop 1. The Front Hall.
Welcome to the Ashcombe House. Built in 1857 by the merchant Elias Ashcombe, this house was home to four generations of his family, and it has been preserved exactly as they left it in the autumn of 1891. Please take your time. Please don’t touch the furnishings. The house closes at five.
Look up. The ceiling medallion above you is original plaster, cast in Boston. The staircase in front of you is black walnut. The family were very proud of it. On the newel post you’ll notice a small carved acorn. Generations of Ashcombe children rubbed that acorn for luck on their way up to bed. You’ll see it’s worn quite smooth.
Go on. You can touch that one.
Stop 2. The Front Parlor.
This was the room for receiving guests. The horsehair sofa and chairs are original. The portrait over the mantel is Elias’s wife, Constance, painted in 1860.
The parlor was also the room where the family laid out their dead. That was the custom. Visitors would come and sit, here, where you’re standing, with the body on a board between two chairs by the window, and they would keep the dead company through the night, so the dead would never be alone in the house.
Constance looks very kind, doesn’t she? Look at her for a while.
Stop 3. The Dining Room.
The table is set as it would have been for a family supper in October of 1891. Count the places. There are eight. There were seven Ashcombes living in the house that autumn.
The eighth place was always laid. You’ll find that in many old houses, if you know to look.
Stop 4. The Kitchen.
Mind the step down.
The cast-iron range is original. So are the pie safe and the long pine table where the servants ate. You’ll notice the kitchen is warmer than the rest of the house. The museum has never been able to explain this. The range has not been lit since 1891.
The other visitors in your group have moved on to Stop 5. You may want to catch up. Or you may want to stand by the range for a minute and warm your hands. It’s cold in the rest of the house.
Stop 5. The Back Stairs.
These narrow stairs were for the servants. You’ll be taking them up.
The main stairs are for family.
Stop 6. The Master Bedroom.
The bed is original. So is the quilt, which Constance pieced in the winter of 1889. Notice the pattern is called Tumbling Blocks. Notice how the blocks seem to fall forever if you look at them long enough. Don’t look at them too long.
On the night table is Elias’s pocket watch. It stopped at 4:52 on the afternoon of October 23, 1891. The family left the house the next morning. They never came back for any of their things.
What time is it now? Check your phone, if you like.
That’s right.
Stop 7. The Children’s Room.
There were three Ashcombe children living in the house that autumn. You can see their beds, their toys. The rocking horse. The little tin soldiers lined up along the windowsill, facing out at the yard.
The rest of your group has gone back down the main stairs to the gift shop. The docent at the front desk is counting the headsets in the basket. She’s one short.
Please stay in this room for a moment. It’s all right. The children are so glad you came up. They don’t get many visitors who go all the way to the end.
Stop 8. The Nursery.
You won’t find this room on your map. Go to the end of the hall. There’s a door with a white china knob. It isn’t locked. It never has been.
The museum describes the tour as having seven stops. That’s because there’s no record of an eighth child, and no one in the family ever spoke about this room, and in 1891, when they left in such a hurry, they didn’t take the cradle.
You can go in. You don’t have to rock it. It will start by itself.
Stop 9.
Thank you for staying through the end of the tour. The front door of the Ashcombe House is now locked. It is 4:52.
You may remove your headset if you wish. You’ll find you can still hear me.
Stop 10. The Front Parlor.
You’ve come back down by the main stairs. That’s good. Family uses the main stairs.
Someone has moved two of the parlor chairs over by the window and set a long board across them. Constance has come down out of her painting to sit with you. So have the others. There are a great many of them. Generations of them. They’re all so pleased.
You can lie down on the board, if you’re tired. It’s the custom. They’ll keep you company through the night.
You’ll never be alone in the house.
Stop 11. The Dining Room.
Count the places.
The visitor who posted the recording did leave the museum that afternoon. She says the docent unlocked the door for her at 5:15, apologizing, saying she’d thought everyone was out. She says she doesn’t remember anything after Stop 7 and found the rest only on the recording.
She returned the headset. She went back the following week, with a friend, and asked to hear Stop 8. The docent said there’s no Stop 8 at the Ashcombe House, and that the museum’s audio guide had been removed from service years ago, after a complaint.
The friend says that as they were leaving, the docent called after them, very kindly, that the dining table had been reset that morning. There are nine places now.