The Cross House

Every winter I hibernate and, so, plan X number of inside projects. At the end of November I even did a post about my Winter Plans. But winter, as least in Kansas this year, did not really happen and I spent more time outside than in. Of my Winter Plans, only 1.5 items got done….

A while back I did a post about the Red Door. The exterior door was in the dining room, facing east. The door was not original to the room. Its opening had originally been a window. In my previous Red Door post I wrote about the head-scratching adventure Justin and I had in trying to ascertain…

I have always loved architecture. As a kid my favorite toy was Lego Blocks. Endlessly, I would build house after house after house with the small multi-colored plastic blocks. Looking at floor plans was (and is) a mesmerizing task. Mesmerizing! I started drawing my own plans based on TV houses like, for example, Bewitched. I…

OK! Let the games begin! This is the seventh in a series of Discovery posts!   A great mystery of the original Cross House kitchen is: WHERE was the sink? The room is large but has almost no wall space for a sink. There is one large window, one massive double window, six doors/openings, and a brick…

NOTE: This post was updated in 2023.   Bo asked, innocently: “Why are these sashes so…odd?” And then all Hell broke loose. In my previous post, I detailed how all I knew about the carriage house was likely wrong. Way wrong. And all because Bo asked an innocent question about some sashes.      …

OK! Let the games begin! This is the sixth in a series of Discovery posts, and all based on the Bo Adventure!   In my previous post, Discovery #5, I wrote about an oddity which Bo noticed about about the window sashes in the second-floor “tower” room in the Cross House. The discovery was of a…

OK! Let the games begin! This is the fifth in a series of Discovery posts, and all based on the Bo Adventure!   It was a dark and stormy night as Bo and I crept into the abandoned, unlighted carriage house. The house shuddered from thunder, and the windows, for an instant, and then another instant,…

Previously, I did a post about decorating the parlor and library of the 1894 Cross House. In the parlor I was thinking about using an incredibly wild & crazy 1970s-inspired paper by the esteemed Bradbury & Bradbury. It arrived today.     The library has almost NO wall space as the room is 80% bookshelves…

    In decorating the Cross House I will be using few antiques. And I greatly desire that these select antiques support the period when the house was built. The house was innovative and I feel a desire to be respectful of this. So, I do not want antiques from the 1870s or 1880s or…

In 1960, the Cross House was purchased by Frank and Esther Toms. The house was later inherited by their son, Bob, who sold it in 1993. This thirty-three-year period of ownership is the longest in the 123-year history of the house. Even longer than the thirty-one-year history of the Mouse family. I have been told…

  Well! One is on eBay! It is in Connecticut, pick-up only. So, if you need a fabulous sofa, and are sorta in the area… NOTE: The sofa is in two pieces, and the pieces will spoon into a mini-van. The link is here.      

OK! Let the games begin! This is the fourth in a series of Discovery posts, and all based on the Bo Adventure!   I picked Bo up at the airport, and we drove the two hours to Emporia, arriving late in the afternoon. Bo wanted to run through the Cross House before checking into his…

OK! Let the games begin! This is the third of a series of Discovery posts, and all based on the Bo Adventure!   THE most exciting, THE most thrilling, and THE most unexpected discovery during the Bo Adventure happened during the last half-hour of Bo’s stay. During this mind-boggling half-hour, things began by Bo and I innocuously…

  I was breathless with excitement! But…where was the tub? It was no longer in place. Did Bob remove it? Even if the tub was long gone, at least I had an image. Now I knew what to look for! The next day a thought popped into my head: Is the tub in the garage?…

OK! Let the games begin! This is the second of a series of Discovery posts, and all based on the Bo Adventure!   I have really weird front doors. It’s true. There are three entry vestibules in the Cross House, and each has an inner and outer set of doors. The main entry faces west,…

OK! Let the games begin! This is the first of a series of Discovery posts, and all based on the Bo Adventure!   A while back I confirmed that the Cross House had picture rail throughout when built. This was, alas, and curiously, all long gone. There was no question that I would reinstate such…

ANNOUNCEMENT! During the next week or so I will be doing a series of MYSTERIES REVEALED posts about the numerous magical discoveries made during the — drum roll, please — BO VISIT! Stay tuned! TODAY:                  

I am sad. Why am I sad? Because Bo left today. Sad. So sad. I asked Bo to stay longer but he said something REALLY nonsensical: “But…but…I have to get back to my life.” Huh? WHAT does that even mean? What could possibly be more important than running all over Emporia looking at fabulous old…