PLUMMER HOUSE OUTDOOR TOUR

It has been awhile since I've shared Plummer House photos and happenings. It is such a beautiful day that I thought I'd go out and take some photos. If you don't know about the Plummer House, go to my "Plummer House" page for more information. Warning: lots of photos ahead...And yup, we live here...well, in the "west wing" of the house to be more accurate.

                                   THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE...THREE BLOCKS LONG!

This stone wall formerly housed the greenhouse.

Path leading to the former greenhouse. Planning on rebuilding this to its former glory.

                                         


                                                SOME FLOWERS ON THE GROUNDS

Across from our driveway

                                         PORTIONS OF THE BACK OF THE HOUSE

The three windows on the top right are in our living room

Our living quarters extend from the end of the house to the left to the third window dormer above.

The view as we look out our living room windows...lots of birdies show up to bathe

                  MANY STONE HANDMADE STAIRCASES AND PATHWAYS ON THE GROUNDS

This one is made from wood...

Our daughter came down these stairs on her wedding day as do many others. This is a popular wedding destination.

Backdoor leads to the lowest level of the five story home. This part is underground in the front of the house.

                                           

                                          

                                          
                                             AND SOME INTERESTING DETAILS...

Door under the greenhouse... once housed the swimming pool's dressing room. But I love the neat architecture...

Three story repunzel-like tower. Formerly the family's water tower. Our daughter and her husband had a romantic outdoor wedding dinner here with caterers cooking beef and chicken kabobs huge grills.

Stairway next to the tower...leading to a path through the woods

Stone archway beside our garage... a favorite place for photographers

Looking towards the house from the tower...

A lot of unique antique fixtures but the city required the ugly new lightbulbs!

The old drive way that winds through the woods is now not in use. Our kids, grandkids, and neighborhood kids enjoy sledding down this long trail in winter. The surrounding woods bring out many deer, fox, turkey, and other interesting wildlife that we find walking the grounds often.

One of two ponds with fountains on the property. Every year our grandson, Charlie, finds tadpoles in the water and shortly thereafter, tiny little frogs hopping about. A few make it to adulthood and find their way to the top of the hill where Charlie is thrilled with the big Daddy frogs jumping around. Our daughter had her wedding ceremony in front of one of the ponds several years ago. And our son as well a few years before that. Many family memories made here.

We feel immensely blessed being able to live here. We have been here 24 years now as Resident Directors. There are 11 acres of property here but we get to just enjoy it without all the work as there is a grounds crew that takes care of everything, including plowing us out in winter.  We also have a cleaning staff and a maintenance man. We DO have to oversee what goes on with everything, however.
We have made many family memories here! But it DOES keep us busy as it is rented over 200 days a year, we have Open House on Wednesdays during the summer, and we also give group tours. We help "oversee" these events but oftentimes give the Group Tours ourselves. And now we are working with consultants to get the house back to its 1920's heydays, which is a very fun project! I also started a little gift shop during Open House days where Plummer House related treasures are sold.

Living here has increased our interest in our community's history. Les has now joined a group of like-minded people who meet and share local historical new tidbits they've learned about. They call the group,The  Fossils. Or is it that THEY are the fossils. I'm not sure. Two of the men have written books of local historical interest and one gives walking tours of historical areas in the city. We have both learned much about history in general and have enjoyed our many years of living here. We are richly blessed!

THE PLUMMER HOUSE

We are blessed to live in a 49 room mansion. The photo you see here is only PART of the house. And, no, we don't OWN the mansion. The house is owned by the city. We live in the "west wing" of the house and act as Resident Director's.It's kind of a part time/full time job. We oversee the day to day operations of the house while the city Park and Recreation Dept takes care of the 11 acres of grounds.  We have now lived here for 23 years!!! It was not always our intention to be here this long but time just flew by ( like time DOES ) and we never saw any reason to leave this amazing place! Who wouldn't want to live here, right?

I've decided to share weekly stories and information about the history of the house, the Plummer family, and stories about our experiences living here for the past 23 years along with photos of the grounds and house. We've had some interesting experiences here!This first post will just be an introduction. Dr Plummer has stories to tell and so do WE. Like the fact that some people think it is haunted; that even though Dr Plummer ( in the future I'll refer to him as Henry )  was a genius, he was also absent minded and there are stories about his absent-mindedness; that famous people have been guests here like Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan and other fun and interesting tidbits of information.

There are 11 acres of property surrounding the home with gardens, ponds with fountains, a man-made waterfall, plenty of woods filled with wildlife,  some trails though the woods, and amazing landscaping! The grounds now serve as a public park. The house can be rented for the whole day ( except, of course, in the part where WE live ) and is a bargain! The most popular use of the house is for weddings, reservations now being taken two years in advance. But people also rent it for graduation parties, anniversary and birthday celebrations, family reunions, piano recitals, etc. We've even had memorial services here. During the summer it is open to the public one day a week for self guided tours. There are tour guides ( docents ) available to answer questions. Our 16 year old granddaughter works as one of the tour guides.

HISTORY:  It took 7 years to build the house, from 1917 to 1924, and was owned by Dr Henry Plummer. Dr Plummer was one of the original doctors working with the Mayo Brothers at the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic is world famous, treating patients here from all over the world,  and having the distinction of having many famous people as patients including many of our Presidents. The Dali Lama is also a regular patient here at the clinic being one of the few who doesn't mind the publicity. In Rochester we're used to seeing limos followed by security vehicles knowing that inside the dark glassed cars,  there are dignitaries who will be going through the clinic or here for surgery.

Dr Henry Plummer

There is much to share about this fascinating and historical place and I thought it would be nice to share a bit of that here, along with photos of the beautiful gardens and grounds. Look for more in future posts.