 Abilene has two fine old mansions open for tours. The Georgian style Seelye Mansion and the older Victorian-era Lebold Mansion which is being restored as a show house for an interior design and home restoration firm. The Lebold Mansion was built in 1880 at the cost of $18,000, but the original owners had the home for a only short time. Consequently, over the years, the mansion was used as a dormitory for telephone operators, an orphanage, and apartments. The mansion is now being restored as a show house for the interior design firm, Victorian Interior's At Lebold Mansion. Most of the rooms in the 5 story mansion are now decorated with period furniture, with an eye for 21st Century function. The rooms are beautiful, though a little too dark and busy for my personal taste. But I'm sure that a tour of the Lebold Mansion would provide many ideas to those restoring other Victorian homes. To me, the coolest thing about the mansion is the foundation for the mansion's tower - a small domed room which served as a dugout for by the first family to settle in Abilene in 1857. The Lebold Mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
copyright 2008-2009 by Keith Stokes |
