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1895 Modified Victorian Dining Room

If the reception hall with the beautiful staircase was not enough to make us buy the house, the dining room closed the deal for sure.  The walls are covered about half way up with wood panels. 

To date, we have only found minor damage and we probably did that when we were moving in.  A visitor once cautioned us to not even attempt to re-finish the wood.  He did not have to convince us that the best thing we can do for this wood is not touch it.  I did take a bit of mahogany colored wax to one wall in some sort of delusion that it would be easy to 'spiff up" in a hurry.  No way.   It took hours and produced almost no visible results.  Our policy now is to just enjoy the wood as it is.

Two French doors lead into this room from the living room. Each door has a glass knob that can come into contact with the dining room wood walls.  Anna folded a pretty napkin so that it would fit over the glass knob and then secured the napkin with a matching ribbon.  Now I can relax when guests swing open those doors. 

When I was cleaning the wooden floors in the dining room, I found a round brass plate directly under where you would expect to have the table.  Inside the plate appeared to be the remains of an electric button switch. 

We asked about and it was suggested that this floor button was used to call the servants into the room.  If that was the case, should not there be a bell system somewhere in the house?  None was found in the kitchen, but one day we noticed two bell boxes on the third floor.  Each box had a different set of bells, probably to indicate to what part of the house a person was being called.

To reach the bell button, it would mean that no rug was used under the table.  With that in mind, we think the floors are in tremendous condition for not being protected all those years. 

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