“Do you live in a Victorian House?” It’s usually the first thing we’re asked. Well, for twenty years, we’ve been laughing (sometimes not!) at the slow restoration process of our vacation house in an Old West town that you may have heard of. Today, we got news that the contractor found a bit of architectural fun.
This is from a few years ago in Tombstone when my friend Arlene and I decided to wear 1890s instead of the usual late 1870s. 🙂
When it comes to Tombstone, people tend to focus on 1881 with the gunfight at the OK Corral, the Earps, et al. In reality, the town continued as a mining town all the way up until the 1920s when the local economy began to shift away (Tombstone was the county seat for Cochise County all the way up to 1929). Moreover, people tend to think of Tombstone as a little dusty frontier town in the middle of nowhere…well, in our humble opinion, they’re wrong.
On the fashion front, we have this commentary on Parisian fashions from the September 27, 1893 edition of the Tombstone Epitaph:
Among the new felt hats are sailors of broad brim and low crown. Derby gloves of chamois have the biggest of red buttons and are bound in red. Paris is advocating flesh-colored suede gloves for evening wear in place of the pure white so long worn. A sleeve which is stamped with the approval of Felix is made of frills of three-inch lace from the shoulder to the waist.
It is now quite the fashion to make up the pretty semi-diaphanous muslins and French lawns over light foundations of batiste or sateen. Pretty clusters of horse chestnut blossoms appear upon ecru-colored round hats of “nutmeg” braid, trimmed with russet brown velvet ribbon. Spanish yellow velvet ribbon is a fashionable trimming for cream tinted nuns’s veilings, crepons, clairettes and similar sheer wool fabrics for young ladies’ wear.
Information on the most current was readily available even in the remotest of places, thanks to newspapers, magazines, and catalogs of retailers such as Sears & Roebuck and Tombstone was no exception. In future posts we hope to be able to bring more of this to light so stay tuned! 🙂
June Gloom to Wild West in nine hours and not even bringing Victorian attire, just housework for this turnaround trip. I would rather be sinking my toes in some beach sand 😒 but after this, the last phase of construction can begin at No. 11. Lucky Adam, he gets to have some alone time here!
Big changes for No. 11 coming soon, now that we have that fancy-schmancy shed in the back finished, that is painted to match our new exterior colors…so now you know the house will be leaf green, darker green, butter gold, and plum. I told you I’m not afraid of strong colors, and Victorians weren’t, either! These shades are all matched to original 1880s ones from original vendors, just in case you thought that in the olden days everything was sepia-toned…you know, like old photography. 🤪
I’ll be back in town next week again, with a load of furniture and pack up the last of the back rooms so the construction can begin. Excited. Bringing more sewing machines, too!
Our silk velvet Eastlake set that was so beautifully restored by Mike R. Benjamin of Miner Mike’s Upholstery is the reason why the main room’s walls are NOT plum! I decided to go with deep ocean colors, just to set them off.
It’s not an apartment, it’s a shed! I’m also bringing out my old vintage wicker furniture from LA for this front porch.Its so cute, and now we can begin on deciding what we’ll do with the back yard. Um, eventually. The house comes first!
The Bonnie Prince took me on a train ride, then a drag up and down Allen street…he was very popular.
