Coming Soon: Holidays!

It's December, and the holidays will be here soon -- even sooner than we think!

Next week, the Bush House Museum will be transformed into a holiday wonderland with fresh greens in every room, a Christmas tree with vintage decorations, and other traditional trimmings for an old-fashioned celebration.

Please join us on Sunday, December 13 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm for our annual Holiday Open House! In addition to the lovely decorations, there will be refreshments, holiday music, and an activity for the children. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be here for photographs and wishes. Make a day of it by planning to attend the Open House at Historic Deepwood Estate the same day.

If you can't make it to the Open House, you can read all about it in the December issue of Northwest Senior and Boomer News. This periodical is available for free at several locations around town.

The best, after all...

Here's how members of the Bush family spent Thanksgiving Day, 1911, in the words of A.N. Bush:

A heavy fog hung on all day. I planned to take advantage of the holiday and go to Portland with the bank plans and show Vogt the changes I want. (NB: A.N. Bush was working with Vogt, an architect, to renovate the interior of Ladd & Bush Bank). I tied them up yesterday so they would be ready. This morning I got up with the thought that I must see that the bank was all right and feed the cat before I leave, but not once did I think of the plans. On the train Durbin sat in front of Mrs. Bush and myself, and he began to talk library plans to Mrs. Bush. At the word “plans” I realized I did not have mine and there was no use to go to Portland. I got off at Hood street and walked back to the bank thoroughly disgusted with myself and the evidences of old age coming on me. I do not know but a keeper will have to take me in charge and think for me or something shocking may happen to me any time. I heard of an absent-minded professor who, while thinking of a lesson, at a reception shook hands with his worst enemy. Who knows but I may be walking down the street arm in arm with Hofer. I had fed the cat. I did not forget that.

I spent the whole day at the bank, not leaving there till seven. I had the whole day to myself and did many things I have been striving for days to do. The public will not let me work business days. I sit around hours for minutes I work, and if I get half a chance after the bank closes, Bingham is most sure to come over for a long visit. I felt pretty mean over myself till late in the afternoon, and as this something done was put away and then others, began to get in better spirits, and tonight I do not know but it was the best after all. For Thanksgiving dinner I had a cold handout on turkey at Sally’s.

Father and Sally had the Websters to dinner. Webster is here painting Father’s picture for Sally. (NB: The Webster portrait hangs in the main hall at the Bush House Museum).

I spent the evening at Father’s and going to meet Mrs. Bush on the eleven o’clock train.

Wishing our friends the best, after all. Happy Thanksgiving!

Twin Houses

Photograph courtesy of Discover-Neighborhood-History

Compare the house pictured above to the photograph of the Bush House Museum in the right sidebar. Although the photographs are taken from different angles, it's easy to see that these houses closely resemble each other.

The picture above shows the Adolph House, built for Samuel Adolph and his wife Mary. Samuel Adolph was born in Prussia about 1835 and came to Salem in 1867. He founded a brewery and later constructed a block of buildings on the south side of State Street, including a saloon.

In 1878, Adolph commissioned Wilbur Boothby, the architect of the Bush House, to build a suburban farmhouse on five acres of land near the State Penitentiary. The house still stands in its original location on the northwest corner of 25th and State Streets.

Did Adolph specifically request a house that echoed the newly-built Bush home? Or did Boothby simply specialize in the Italianate style he had seen in his youth on the east coast? Either way, the family resemblance is evident in the facade -- which is almost identical to the Bush House -- as well as in smaller exterior details such as the window moldings, the gabled roofline, and the carved panels along the eaves.

The similarities continue inside the house, though on a smaller scale. In particular, the staircase, though narrower and steeper than the one at the Bush House, nevertheless includes the same newel post and balusters, and the same carved detail on each riser. There's also a black and white photo of the house in its early years, with the penitentiary buildings visible across the fields.

Samuel Adolph died in 1893, but the house remained in the family until the 1970s as the home of Adolph's son-in-law, Isidore Greenbaum, and his family. Like the Bush House, the Adolph House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It now houses professional offices.

N.B.: Should you choose to admire the Bush House's twin in person, please respect the occupants' privacy.

Thank you, Sam Bush

"I thought you might appreciate having some writings of mine on family history and photos to go with them..."

So begins a letter received this past summer from Sam Bush, cousin of Jody (see below) and great-great-grandson of Asahel Bush II. Born in Portland in 1949, Sam was the younger son of Stuart Bush and his wife, Mary Patricia Livesley. After spending several years on the East Coast, Sam settled in Portland and worked as a woodworker, designer, and teacher. As the descendant of two important Salem families, Sam maintained an interest in family history along with albums and folders and boxes of historic photographs and documents. However, due to complications from a chronic illness, Sam had not visited the Bush House Museum in more than ten years.

About six weeks after writing that letter, on August 13, Sam passed away at the age of 60. A couple of months later came an unexpected gift for the Museum: the long-term loan of furniture, accessories, photographs, and papers that had been in Sam's keeping.

Details have yet to be finalized, but next year we expect to display the original suite of dining room furniture (table, chairs, and sideboard), a marble sculpture, and assorted pieces of china that have remained in the Bush family until now, and will be passed along to Sam's children in several years.

Equally exciting are the family photos, books, letters, and documents that fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of the Bush family, especially the years from 1880 to 1910: a journal of Lulu Hughes Bush's 1905 trip to Europe! A.N. Bush's scrapbook from his college years! College diplomas for several generations! Family correspondence! Home movies!

In the weeks to come, we'll be able to tell you more about these items and what we're learning from them. In the meantime: thank you, Sam.

Sally's Table

Sally Bush was the second daughter of Asahel Bush II and his wife, Eugenia Zieber Bush. Born on October 29, 1860, she was not quite three years old when her mother died. Like all of the Bush daughters Sally attended the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She went on to graduate from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts before returning to Salem in 1883. "Miss Sally" lived with her father until his death in 1913, then continued as the mistress of the Bush House until she passed away in 1946.

Miss Sally was known around town for her generosity to those in need. By 1916 she had so many requests for assistance from so many people that her brother, A.N. Bush, decided to chronicle her experiences in a little pamphlet entitled "Sally's Charities, or Twenty-Five Days of Alms Giving." Here's one encounter:

Breakfast Menu.

At Sally's Hobo Table D'Hote.
Served on the east steps.

Fried bacon and eggs
Baked beans warmed over
Fried potatoes
Popovers
Coffee.

Sally prepared the eggs herself. The meal was served on platters with plates and accessories and a young tramp consumed it with much apparent satisfaction.

Sally Bush took great pleasure in sharing with others, and it's in honor of her generous spirit that we announce the first Sally Bush Memorial Food Drive, in partnership with Marion-Polk Food Share.

On Thursday, October 29, Sally's birthday, admission to the Bush House Museum is FREE with a donation of canned food. The Museum and the Bush Barn Art Center will continue to accept food donations through Sunday, November 8.

Although fried bacon and eggs are out of the question, we encourage you to consider this list of the "10 Most Wanted" foods when making your donation:

Canned soup
Canned chili
Boxed macaroni and cheese
Breakfast cereal
Peanut butter
Canned tuna
Canned fruit
Canned vegetables
Pasta
Pasta sauce

Even if you don't plan to tour the Museum, please consider making a donation to help the hungry in our community, in the spirit of Miss Sally Bush.

Thank you!

Who was Lida?

As we read journal entries written by A.N. Bush from 1911-13, we encounter many names of characters who populated the lives of A.N. and his family. Some of the names are easy to recognize, while others take a bit of puzzling over.

Take "Eliza", for example.

Eliza Sloan Nolan was the daughter of A.N.'s cousin, Octavia Painter Nolan. Eliza was born in 1895 and was about 16 years old when the journal entries began. She was a student at Sacred Heart Academy in Salem, but her family lived 'way out in the Clear Lake area of what is now Keizer, which was too far for a daily commute. So Eliza lived in town with A.N. and his wife, Lulu Hughes Bush, during the week, and went home to Clear Lake every weekend. A.N. enjoyed Eliza's company and detailed their adventures together, from visits to the vaudeville theater to picnics at Silver Falls. Around the same time, A.N.'s sister Sally made a portrait of Eliza so we even know what she looked like. Although A.N. never gave her last name or mentioned the family relationship, "Eliza" was easy to figure out.

Lida, not so much.

"Lida" first appeared in A.N.'s journal in November of 1911. Lida (no last name given) lived in Eugene, but had come up to Salem on her way to Detroit (Oregon) where she had been appointed postmistress. She stayed with Sally for a few days and went to visit with Eliza's family in Clear Lake one weekend. In later entries it's clear that Lida had taken up her post in Detroit and found the snowy winter weather to be a challenge. From the context one can infer that Lida was an old friend or family member, someone who literally needed no introduction -- but her actual identity was never clear.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail message from a gentleman who lives in Australia, who has distant ties to the Bush family. He had been browsing through our online photo collection and was writing to correct some of our information. Turns out his ancestor, Colin McIntosh, had been married to one Eliza Zieber, another cousin of A.N. and Sally Bush. This Eliza, who was divorced from Mr. McIntosh by 1900 and was living in Salem by 1916, was also known as... Lida. Eliza "Lida" Zieber McIntosh.

We don't have any photographs of Lida (that we know of) and we still don't know very much about her. But now we can tell her relatives that she was the postmistress in Detroit during the winter of 1912, and that she preferred the whole back over any other piece of chicken.

That's who Lida was.

A House of a Different Color!

It has been a busy summer at the Bush House Museum. In addition to the usual excitement around the Art Fair & Festival, the Museum has been surrounded by machinery, equipment, and people -- painters! The end result is a solid exterior with a high-quality paint job in a fancy new/old color:



Research indicates that the Bush House had been the same blue-gray color since at least the late 1970s, when it was placed on the National Register. However, an article written in 1878, just after the Bush family moved into their newly-built home, described the house as a "light mouse-brown" color. Also, during restoration of the porte-cochere in 2007 we discovered some remnants of what might have been the original exterior color, a greeny-browny-gray.

So, after consultation with the state Historic Preservation Office and the City of Salem, we decided to make a change, hoping that a different color will help folks see this old house in a new light.

What do you think?