Blandwood

Today we looked at the Blandwood building on Washington St. This property has 100 acres and is the oldest standing of Italianate structure. It is very unique because it was once the Keeling Institute and it has very interesting decorations. To the left and right of the front room was the West parlor and the East parlor. The West parlor was more formal and known as the “king” parlor. The East parlor was less formal and known as the “queen” parlor. The chandeliers had a unique design from the circle that it was hanging from. They might have added a new face to the original house twice because maybe they wanted a new look or they may have been trying to keep up with the style of most houses in that time. The family probably found it necessary to continue updating the structure because it could have represented their wealth or their reputation.
The building had high ceilings to allow the heat to rise and flow out the open doors and windows of the house. The doors in the parlor had mirrors on the back of them to reflect light. In the other parlor, they had mirrors on the window doors. Their bedrooms were also kind of cool. They had three bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. In one bedroom, they had sleigh beds and in the other they had decorative back boards. Many people in the past probably admired the Blandwood house because they were so wealthy and had nice things that many probably didn’t have. The building was probably a role model for how they would want their house to look like one day.