To fit my theme of “Houses and Homes,” we visited the American Swedish Institute, which is also the home of the Turnblad Mansion. Settle in, because this is a very long post.
The modern side of the museum, with the Turnblad Mansion in the background.
Another view.
The joining of the mansion and the modern part of the museum was seamless and gave us this opportunity to see this great drainpipe.
On the first floor this is the main foyer with a two-story clock and fireplace.
Sitting on the stairs.
Beautiful room with a harpsichord.
Fabulous detail from the ceiling.
Music room. Noticing the detail on the upper moldings along the ceiling. We could see the other side of parts of the moldings, and we checked to see if both sides were elaborately carved. They were.
Nice vase.
View of the side street and gate.
Ceiling detail.
Flower arrangement in the dining room window.
Fireplace in dining room detail.
Gorgeous, if blurry, sideboard featuring convex and concave glass.
In the kitchen we explored the flour bins.
And noted how the shelves were adjustable.
The porte cochere entrance.
The mansion has 11 tile stoves, which were purchased out of a Swedish catalog picked out by Mr. Turnblad himself.
Ceiling detail.
Stained glass detail. This is outside the solarium.
The solarium was wonderful, and would probably be quite lovely in the middle of winter.
Headed upstairs to the ballroom.
Wall paneling detail.
On the third floor I caught a glimpse of this gnome.
More tile stove. The TV is an exhibit of the history of Swedish Music in three minutes.
More stove.
This might be my favorite lighting fixture.
More stove.
And more stove. There was a postcard with pictures of all the stoves. I sent it to someone.
This is a downstairs stove.
More lighting fixture.
More stove.
More fixtures.
Outside the house on the roof: bees!
A sign that cracks me up.
The Turnblads had one daughter and she was an artist. This stove is in her studio.
After rocking out with the guitar/keytar cutouts you can see on the right, Sara and I played Mad Libs.
Our final product.
And yet more stove.
And more light!
A nice view of the ecoroof on the new building.
Here we are in the ballroom, which has a stage.
Portraits of famous Swedes. Sara assumes the pose.
As does Shawn.
We were encouraged to play the piano. Shawn did.
More drainpipe.
Good roof detail.
Look at this craftsman with his horse.
Which Sara went for a ride on.
Outside views. The solarium and the porte cochere.
Good view of the tower.
The front entrance.
More front entrance.
One last self portrait.
