Stepping into Christmas past in St. Charles

Guests can sample fresh gingerbread made from an 1839 recipe, sip hot cider warmed on a wood-burning stove and hear familiar carols played on a 19th-century pump organ today at the Durant House Museum holiday open house.

The Pioneer Sholes School also will be open during the event, which runs from 2 to 6 p.m.

Both historic buildings are located at the Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve along Dean Street, just west of Randall Road, in St. Charles.

On Saturday, docents dressed in cotton dresses with long sleeves and skirts welcomed visitors to the five-room house that Bryant Durant, a bricklayer, built for his wife, Jerusha Shurtleff, in 1843. Durant used bricks made with clay from the nearby Ferson Creek.

With replica decorations, each room on Saturday looked as it might have when the six Durant children celebrated Christmases in the 1840s and 1850s.

"We aim to give you a wonderful experience," docent Susan Wukitsch of St. Charles told a young family touring the kitchen that was added in 1883 by the Peterson family. The Peterson family bought the house from the Durants.

Dressed in her gingham apron, ruffled blouse and shawl, Wukitsch talked about the life of a farm family in the 1880s. The discussion included what is was like to use the large wood-burning stove in the corner.

"This was a modern kitchen for the 1880s," Wukitsch explained, reaching for firewood for the stove from a wooden container nearby.

"The term 'kitchen' was new," she added. "Women baked and cooked on the open hearth in what was called the living room before there were wood-burning stoves. Anyone who was cooking or baking had to remember to keep adding wood."

On the kitchen table were items that families gave each other as gifts in the 1880s, including measuring spoons, tools, children's games and roller skates -- all made of wood.

"It's relaxing to not see plastic," said guest Barbara Churchill of St. Charles. "Wood is rare to find today."

The main floor of the original two-story house consists of a living room, bedroom and formal parlor.

The Durant House and Pioneer Sholes School are operated by Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley with support from the Kane County Forest Preserves.

For information, visit www.ppfv.org.