I expected homemade ice cream in old-fashioned ice cream makers, but it was just a tub of store-bought ice cream. But, hey, ice cream is ice cream, right?! We all liked it!
Reddick Mansion is right in the middle of town and has been around since the mid-1800s. In fact, when Lincoln and Douglas had their very first debate in what is now Washington Park (not Lincoln-Douglas Park, surprisingly), people covered the stairs and stood on the balconies of this house to watch! Very cool! After our ice cream, we watched as the kids played in the backyard of the mansion. Of course, I made the kids stand still and take a couple pictures of them, which they were not thrilled about, but they humored me.
Getting Noah to stand still for pictures is nearly impossible, but I managed it a couple times.
Mostly they ran around and looked for bugs. They said on the website that they were going to have old-fashioned games for the kids to play, but unfortunately I didn't see any of that going on there. The kids improvised instead. :-)
This is the garden on the side of the building.
We decided to take a tour of the inside. It's really beautiful in there. They've done a good job restoring it. When Mr. Reddick died, he gave the house to the city to use as a library and it was used as a library until 1974 when it was given back to the city to restore. There are differences, because of the things the library did to it all those years ago, but there is a lot that is either been restored or is still original. This is the second floor or the first floor, if you enter from the street. She told us to imagine the horse and buggies driving up and having the guests come up the stairs and come into these rooms. So cool to think about for a history buff like myself!
All these gorgeous marble fireplaces are in every room in the house and all original!
All the furniture has been brought it, but is of the right era. Makes for some beautiful living spaces.
That's a picture of Mr. Reddick on the left there.
This is the master bedroom on the 3rd floor. We weren't able to go on the upper floor, because the only way to get up there is to take the very narrow servants' staircase and we're not allowed to due to firecodes, but it's amazing how different the servant's staircase is from the rest of the house, so I can imagine the servants' quarters are very modest.
They had this part on the bottom floor to advertise the upcoming gingerbread house contest in Nov. Livie LOVED Mr. Gingerbread Man!
Here is that very tall staircase leading to the second floor for their guests. Imagine climbing all those after a long trip to see the Reddicks! It's a neat house and we had a nice time there on this gorgeous day!
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