Slifer House
Carpeting to be Installed at Slifer House
April 2 , 2007
The Slifer House museum, located on the campus of RiverWoods Senior Living Community in Lewisburg, will be having new carpet installed from April 3-5 by Bruce Woodcock and Associates. The new carpeting was donated by St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of Lewisburg, and is very similar to the carpet that was utilized during the Victorian period. The carpeting is a deep red, and has an overall patterning of peach circular flowing leaves. It is carpeting woven in strips and then meticulously stitched together to form an overall ‘wall-to-wall’ patterning It will enhance the Drawing Room’s collection of Victoriana.
“Not everyone would be excited about old carpeting, but I was when Andy Morgan telephoned me,” remarked Gary Parks, Museum Director. “It strengthens our interpretation at the Slifer House Museum and presents a truer picture of what life was like during the nineteenth century. The Victorians would have been horrified for their guests to be looking at the bare wood floors. Even though there is an honesty in the yellow pine flooring, it was never, never meant to be seen. If any one room in the house would have had wall-to-wall carpeting it would be the drawing room. That is where you entertained, where you placed your newest furniture or your best decorative arts, where you, quite ironically, ‘put your best foot forward’ to impress your visitors."
The Slifer House Museum is the former home of Colonel Eli Slifer, who served as both Treasurer (1850’s) and Secretary (during the Civil War) of Pennsylvania. The house was built between 1860 and 1862, and is the design of Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan. The museum interior was carefully re-created to evoke the life and times of the Victorian period. The scope of collections at Slifer House include objects dating between 1835 and 1915, with an emphasis on artifacts belonging to the families that lived in the home, objects with local provenance, and objects of the Victorian period. The addition of the new carpet in the Drawing Room will add to the authenticity of the room.
The museum will reopen on April 14 for tours, Tuesdays through Sundays, 1-4PM.
To learn more about the Slifer House, contact us by e-mail or call (570) 524-2245.
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