Kruse House Museum offers look at early 1900s life in West Chicago

Before wine or coffee or beer, tea was an integral part of social gatherings. The Kruse House Museum is saluting this gracious counterpoint from the Victorian era in a grand display of tea cups, tea pots and tea accessories during its 2012 season.

Visitors are welcome at the museum from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 29 at 527 Main St., one block west of Route 59 in downtown West Chicago. The museum will be closed Sept. 1.

A visit to this historically preserved home shows daily life for a typical early 1900s family. Built in 1917 for the Frederick and Bertha Kruse family, the American four-square is decorated with furniture, fixtures and fine art that reflect a once-was culture. The woodwork and art glass alone are worth the trip.

At one time the house rested in a neighborhood of similar residences, but commerce has made its progress over the past nearly 100 years, and the home now is between a four-story condo complex on one side and the Jiminez Carcinerias shopping strip on the other.

Yet its unassuming presence is a reminder of West Chicago’s roots as a thriving railroad town since it came into being at the intersection of three train lines in the mid-1850s.

Frederick Kruse, like many West Chicago residents of his day, earned a living on the railroad that ran through his town. It was an easy walk for him out the front door to the round house, where he boarded a commuter train to work as its collector.

As a reflection of his successful career, the home includes a front parlor, an impressive front staircase, the living room with comfortable hearth, a dining room with built-in hutch and plate rail, a library and kitchen staging area.

The real cooking took place in the cooler basement back before air conditioning. The home did have indoor plumbing, as seen on the second floor, where the three bedrooms are found. A second stairway connects the child’s bedroom with the main floor kitchen, saving mother steps.

Fred and Bertha Kruse had one child, their daughter Celia, a single career woman who commuted on her father’s train to the city for her job. She stayed in the home even after her parents died and kept the home in its original decor and layout.

While it is a beautiful home, equally beautiful were the gardens that surrounded it.

Just as sharing tea was part of gracious living, so were well-tended gardens a reflection of the culture of the early 20th century. Celia’s gardens have been revived and returned to their intended glory, including a cement lily pad pond, through the hard work of the West Chicago Garden Club.

When Celia died in 1975, she bequeathed her home and furnishings to the West Chicago Historical Society, which has been its caretaker ever since, faithfully maintaining and preserving this community treasure. At her death at the age of 79, Celia certainly had witnessed the many changes to her neighborhood, her town. Her wish to leave behind some insight to earlier days has been honored.

Visitors receive a personal tour of the home from volunteers, happy to introduce guests to the unique and interesting, the quaint and clever features and artifacts. Bring schoolchildren with their Passports to Adventure because the museum is part of this program to encourage visits to nearby community historic places.

Every room includes many tea-related items to view, from the ornate to the whimsical, from the stately to the tiniest cups for “just a spot of tea.” “Treasures of Tea” aptly names this year’s featured exhibit, and every visitor leaves with a complementary tea bag.

The annual fundraising event for the Kruse House Museum and Gardens will be from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, on the lawn. For $4 per person, visitors can sample an array of homemade desserts with ice cream at the historical society’s old-fashioned ice cream social. A silent auction will be part of the afternoon’s activities. The auction closes at 2:30 p.m., with last bid numbers given at 2:15 p.m.

For information about the museum, call West Chicago Historical Society President Lance Conkright at (630) 231-2329 or visit www.krusehousemuseum.org.

If you go

If you go

What: Kruse House Museum

When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 29 (except Sept. 1); ice cream social and silent auction fundraiser from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8

Where: 527 Main St., West Chicago

Cost: Freewill donation; $4 for Sept. 8 fundraiser

Info: www.krusehousemuseum.org or (630) 231-2329