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Historic Campbell House opens for the holidays

Bailey Crandall, 8, right, grimaces after actress Janean Jorgensen, playing Mrs. Grace Campbell, puts stylish velvet hat on her head at the historic Campbell House Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015. The mansion, operated as a living history exhibit by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, was full of visitors Saturday who got to experience the life of a wealthy Spokane family a century ago with the help of actors like Jorgensen who portrayed historical characters associated with the house. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
Bailey Crandall, 8, right, grimaces after actress Janean Jorgensen, playing Mrs. Grace Campbell, puts stylish velvet hat on her head at the historic Campbell House Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015. The mansion, operated as a living history exhibit by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, was full of visitors Saturday who got to experience the life of a wealthy Spokane family a century ago with the help of actors like Jorgensen who portrayed historical characters associated with the house. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
By Nina Culver nculver47@gmail.com

The garlands are hung and poinsettias line the stairs in the historic Campbell House on the grounds of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, and the public is invited to come inside, take a peek and maybe make a sugar cookie.

The Kirtland Cutter-designed home was built in 1889 for Amasa and Grace Campbell and their daughter, Helen. The family lived in the home until 1924, when Helen donated it to the Eastern Washington State Historical Society.

“They’re the only family to ever live in this home,” said volunteer coordinator Logan Camporeale.

In the kitchen, Rebecca Cook took on the role of Hulda Johnson, the family’s cook. She taught kids the proper technique for cutting out sugar cookies, telling them to press down hard on the cookie cutters while giving their hips a wiggle.

Bailey Crandall said she had the wiggle down, but had to have a couple of tries to get it right. “The first time I didn’t even get the cookie cutter through the dough,” she said. “It was fun.”

Crandall, 8, said she would have liked living in the home but said she wouldn’t have wanted to work there as a servant because there were too many stairs in the home, which rises three stories above the basement.

“It’s kind of cool,” she said of the home.

The home had two maids, a cook, a gardener and a coachman. In the winter the gardener’s job would have been to keep the nine fireplaces and the wood furnace going.

In addition to the cook in the kitchen, visitors can also chat with volunteers playing Mr. and Mrs. Campbell and the coachman in the carriage house. Mr. Campbell, played by Patrick Treadway, was absent Saturday after a fall on the ice.

The furniture in the home was auctioned when the home was donated, but some of the original pieces have since made their way back, Camporeale said. Others are period pieces or reproductions.

Deb Lansford visited the house for the first time Saturday with her son and some friends. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “It’s fun to see things from the period.”

She appreciated seeing the kitchen with its large stove and the cook making cookies. “It’s kind of like a living museum,” she said.

The line to get inside stretched out the door Saturday as kids rambled through the house following clues for a scavenger hunt.

“They’re having a wonderful time,” Lansford said of her son and his friend.