Historic Holiday The Campbell House Offers Taste Of Christmas In Turn-Of-The-Century Spokane

“Mrs. Campbell is not receiving formal guests today. She receives her formal guests on Thursday afternoons, but drop off your calling card and you are welcome to tour the home.”

With a smile, the first-floor maid of the Campbell House ushers you into the entrance hall of the elegant English Tudor Revival mansion designed by Kirtland Cutter.

She is, after all, excited for the holidays and the goings-on of Amasa and Grace Campbell and their daughter, Helen, in this year of 1910.

“Helen will be hosting a dancing party tonight with 10 young men and 10 young women. Mr. Campbell will be downstairs having a poker party with Patsy Clark, John Finch and some other local businessmen.”

Gossip abounds at the Campbell House this holiday season.

With the 10-year project to restore historic Campbell House now completed, the Cheney Cowles Museum is recreating a “living history” for the holidays, showcasing life in the Campbell household at the turn-of-the-century as seen through the eyes of their staff.

This unique event called “Come Home for the Holidays” runs through Dec. 30.

The tour begins when you purchase tickets at the Cheney Cowles Museum adjacent to the Campbell House and watch a short video overview of the family and mansion.

Then, with calling card in hand, walk next door to the mansion for a self-guided tour during which servants give you an insider’s perspective of life in the home of this prominent Spokane family.

From the entrance hall, the maid presents the reception room where Mrs. Campbell formally received guests.

(The ladies of Browne’s Addition set aside one day a week for calling and would visit approximately five homes, staying at each for 15 minutes or less.)

Across from the reception room, the library was the setting for parties, weddings and family gatherings.

The dining room features a fireplace with original blue tiles, possibly from Holland. The Campbells preferred formal dining three meals a day.

While the family ate breakfast, the maids would lay out the towels for baths, make the beds and sweep the floors.

“Mrs. Campbell is very particular about how things look,” the second-floor maid explains.

The mansion was built in 1898 when successful mining industrialist “Mace” Campbell moved his family from Wallace to Spokane. Campbell employed Cutter to design a home “to meet the social and business obligations expected” for that period.

Helen, their only child, was 6 when they moved into the mansion.

The Campbells hired two or three maids (usually assigned to each floor), a coachman who doubled as the gardener, and a cook.

As you enter the kitchen, the cook is busy preparing the holiday feast, talking as fast as she is cooking.

“Stew boiled is stew spoiled and proper pudding is to be stirred seven times without speaking, which is hard to do when the maids are interrupting the whole time.”

The cook was chief of the domestic hierarchy, responsible for managing the household staff and arranging menus and schedules with Mrs. Campbell. The Campbells paid her $35 each month in addition to room and board.

The maids were young women, usually European immigrants, between the ages of 17 and 25. They dressed in starched uniforms and tended to family needs, housekeeping and errands. They earned $25 a month plus room and board.

The Campbells treated their servants like family, paying their medical bills when necessary and entertaining the suitors who came to call on the young women.

As you continue upstairs on your tour, the maid will answer questions as she prepares the bedrooms for guests and sets out Helen’s and Mrs. Campbell’s dinner dresses.

Children will enjoy the dumbwaiter and wood chute in the basement. As you descend the elegant staircase, tip your hat to the family portraits on the wall, painted in 1904.

Research done in preparation for restoration of the Campbell House is impressive and far-reaching.

“The mansion was given to the (Eastern Washington State) Historical Society in 1924 when Mrs. Campbell died,” says Marsha Rooney, curator of history for the Cheney Cowles Museum. (Mr. Campbell died in 1912.)

“At this time,” Rooney says, “the historical society also received Helen’s diary, written from 1913 to 1917, and a decorator’s plan book of key furniture recommendations and swatches of fabric, wallpaper, drapes and upholstery.

“We also talked with numerous people who had worked in mansions similar to this,” says Rooney.

An exciting discovery was a box of bundled letters and business correspondence found under the stairs of the mansion. Eight leather-bound volumes gave historians detail into household expenditures, staff salaries and Amasa’s business dealings.

Also helpful were letters written by a household maid to her family back in Sweden. The family turned over the letters to the historical society, giving further insight to the family.

For more than 20 years, the Campbells celebrated the holidays in the mansion with gaiety, music, candles and greenery.

Writes Helen in her diary: “Opened our packages after breakfast. Then went for a walk in the snow. Played charades tonight. It’s been a very happy Christmas.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MORE MUSEUM HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES “Come Home for the Holidays” runs through Dec. 30 at the Campbell House/Cheney Cowles Museum, 2316 W. First. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesdays, 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $3, $2 for seniors, students and children ages 6-16, $7.50 for families, free for children younger than 6. In conjunction with the Campbell House tour, Cheney Cowles Museum offers the following public holiday activities: Historic Browne’s Addition Caroling, 5-7 p.m., Dec. 10 and Dec. 17. Families sing holiday music throughout the historic neighborhood with refreshments and special tours of the Campbell House included. Reservations are recommended; regular museum admission fees apply. (Carolers should meet at the museum). Uptown Opera gives a free performance Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium. Cast members in period-piece costumes will perform excerpts from the opera “The Ballad of Baby Doe.” (The Uptown Opera also performs 2-4 p.m. each Thursday in the Campbell House Library for the duration of the living history tour). For more information on these events, call 456-3931.