My FAVORITE ROOM

Well, OF COURSE MY FAVORITE ROOM WOULD BE THE LAUNDRY ROOM!!

The way this mansion was built -- the grand entrance actually took you up to the second story of the home. The rooms on that level were the public rooms. The library, living room, dining room, kitchen, children's playroom

As you look at the mansion, the ground level is actually where all the work takes place...the furnace, coal rooms, laundry room, -- and many rooms we didn't visit.

This grand staircase is situated in such a way that now, it appears to be on the side of the house...

After touring some of the public rooms...we went back down to the ground level. TO THE LAUNDRY ROOM...

It is difficult for me to explain HOW BIG this room is.  Holy Cow...

It is probably 20 feet wide and 40 feet long.  This sink -- with three bays, is made out of stone.

Each sink had it's own set of faucets. Just the PLUMBING in this room must have been considered cutting edge...

I have no idea what most of these machines are...or how they work...

But -- the giant thing in the corner of the room -- which looks like a room all of it's own -- is the STATE OF THE ART CLOTHES DRYER.

This is a terrible picture -- but the door on one side opens, and the family sheets, towels, clothes, would be draped over these rods...

It was a gas dryer...and very expensive at the time...

Tricia pulled out one of the racks so I could get a better picture.

Everything that was laundered in this house, for this family, would have been dried inside. They had huge drying racks set up...but the actual DRYER hurried the process. And then the IRONING would begin. That was a separate room...and, yes, the had one of those roller ironrites for their bed sheets.

Because, at the turn of the century -- if you lived  in an industrial town like LaSalle, rich or poor -- you could not hang your laundry outside to dry.  The air quality was terrible, and before your clothes got dry, they'd be covered with a layer of soot.