Hegeler Carus Foundation

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These (little) lights of ours

Let them shine. Let them shine. Let them shine.

With so many rooms, there is such a variety of lighting all over the Mansion. The crystal is beautiful and their many facets help radiate the light. We don’t know if Feng Shui was a thing then but there is definitely good energy throughout.

This is just a sampling. When you take a tour, you can see these lights (and more!) in person.

  • Sparkling in the Reception Room.
  • Looking up from below in the Reception Room
  • Main hallway between Reception Room and Parlor. This beautiful light greeted all visitors.
  • Multicolored in the Parlor
  • Light in the Children’s room for play and studying.
  • In the Family Room.
  • Lamp beside Mary Carus’ desk in the Family Room
  • Gracing the Dining Room
  • In the beginning light came from candles, lanterns and fireplaces.
  • Light in Camilla’s Bedroom (Second Floor)
  • Light in Paul and Mary’s Bedroom (Second Floor)
  • One of the early light bulbs in the gymnasium.

Upstairs, downstairs

There are many sets of stairs in the Mansion, and probably many more stories. But here are three stories that we know:

Our iconic horseshoe stairs

Main Stairs leading to the Ground Floor

The family had a number of pets over the years, including a monkey, a parrot, and dogs. One of those dogs was a mixed breed named Tatters. Tatters got his very name because of what he did to the stairs. Someone had trained him as a puppy to sound an alert when he needed to “go outside”. His solution? He’d descend the stairs and start scratching at the door until someone came to let him out. When he wanted back up, he’d scritch-scratch at the door again, tattering up both sides of the door…hence the name Tatters. You can still see the scratches today.

  • Steps going up from Ground floor to Main floor.
  • The reason Tatters got his name.
  • Very narrow steps used by staff from Main floor outside of kitchen to Ground floor.
  • Stairs in our gym since the gym is two stories high.

South Stairs leading outside

Alwin, the youngest Carus child, was looking for something to do one snowy day. He went down the stairs and opened the doors. The snow started blowing into the house! After a few minutes, he went and grabbed a metal-rail sled and set it at the top of the stairs. WHOOSH! Down he went, again and again, until one of the staff felt a draft blow through the kitchen. She came around to find little Alwin, ripping down the stairs, having the time of his life. He was grounded. Again. The family letters that we have suggest that Alwin was grounded quite frequently for a variety of mischievous escapades.

  • Imagine young Alwin standing at the top, with his sled at the ready.
  • The South entrance door that Alwin opened to the snow outside.

Main Hall stairs

It’s a lovely staircase leading down from the Bedroom Floor. Atop its newel post sits a large lamp, entirely original. And on nearly every tour, someone asks if anyone has ever tried to slide down the rail. In its 144 years of existence, we know there were probably a number who did. We have concrete information of two of those people. They were a grandson and great-granddaughter of Mary and Paul Carus.

The wildest part? The lamppost isn’t anchored on to the newel post. A careless person might knock it clean off, bending the metal post or shattering the globe. Yet there it is, 144 years old and still perfectly intact!

  • Stairs down from the attic to the second floor.
  • Stairs from second bedroom floor to Main floor.
  • After 144 years of wear, looks like most used the banister…
  • The newel post and lamp at bottom of stairs.

Home Workouts

The Hegeler Family (then the Carus families) have been working out at home since 1876 in what is thought to be the oldest, privately owned gymnasium in the country.

It also boasts a parabolic arch in its design which was virtually unheard of in private homes. We use to let tours go down into the gym but a visitor tried to crawl up the rope and pulled it out of the ceiling. So now the guest need to stay on the steps.

In the pics below, it is getting a good cleaning. You can see the arch and most of the original weights, skis etc. The pommel horse and medicine ball in the pic are not original to the house. They did have those pieces of equipment in the original gym though. Paul Carus liked to throw the medicine ball around for exercise.