Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

[Anita]

How did they sit down?[in a hoop skirt....]

Hoops collapsed, one ring upon another. They are fairly easy to sit down in; but you don't want to try and sit in a chair with arms; the hoops will fly up in front usually! One could take out an entire small room, so housewives typically worked in a dress with multiple petticoats; not hoops. Likewise, lady nurses during the war wore multiple petticoats and no hoops - they were usually not allowed.

Thanks Betty. It is really an impressive bit of engineering, except for the problem of the chair with arms!

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Laurie, thanks for the wealth of info in your post. I enjoyed the story of the little girl on the tour who was afraid afraid of ghosts and your creative solution using the hoop.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Looks like the stove in the Lincoln's Springfield home.

Yes, and Wiki uses this photo of Mary's stove as a representative example of a 19century wood burning stove:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood-burning_stove

[L Verge]

Looks like the stove in the Lincoln's Springfield home.

Yes, and Wiki uses this photo of Mary's stove as a representative example of a 19century wood burning stove:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood-burning_stove

That stove is very similar to the one in the kitchen at Surratt House. When restoring the kitchen wing, we were faced with the dilemma of installing a cooking fireplace or a new-fangled stove. Surratt House was built in 1852, just at the time where cooking changed from fireplace to stove.

Back to the drawing boards and the archaeological digs. We found reference to repairs being made to a cook stove (thanks to the tavern records having been confiscated by the government in 1865 and now residing in the National Archives). Further investigation of the archaeological digs around the foundation, we found a good portion of the hearth with dimensions that indicated too little space for hearth cooking. Problem solved.

I am not a believer in mediums, but I must tell this tale. While we were still trying to find the hearth, we had an unannounced visit from a professed medium. We later learned that she had done work for the government on the matter of ghosts. After her tour, she announced to me that Surratt House has no ghosts - just bad feelings and emotions. That soothed my worried soul.

As I walked out the door and around the grounds with her, however, she asked what the digs were for and I explained that we were raising funds to rebuild the kitchen wing. I made a comment about trying to find the chimney or hearth foundations, and she pointed to a certain spot and told me to tell the archaeologists to try there. Several days later, she was proved correct. I'm still stubborn enough, however, to think that she made a logical guess seeing the dimensions of the builder's trench that had already been unearthed.

[Eva Elisabeth]

What building is this?
   

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hint #1: Try to find out where the building is (was) located, or what kind of building this is (was) in general.

[RJNorton]

Wild guess - the National Hotel?

[Eva Elisabeth]

This is an excellent guess, Roger, and 50% of it is correct. The building is indeed a hotel, but not the National Hotel.

[STS Lincolnite]

How about the Kirkwood house?

[Eva Elisabeth]

This is another excellent guess, Scott, but, I'm sorry, not correct.

Hint #2: Abraham Lincoln (at least) once boarded in this house.

[RJNorton]

The Tremont House in Chicago?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Another smart guess, Roger, but, sorry, not correct.

Hint #3: Actually it was the entire Lincoln family who boarded in this house.

Hint #4: Roger, your latest guess came closer to the location which was Illinois.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hint #5: The Lincolns boarded there in 1861.

[RJNorton]

Chenery House?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Kudos, Roger, you nailed it! The Lincolns stayed there for a few days before they departed for Washington because their home was rent and most of the furniture sold. I was surprised that it was such a huge building!
Please, go here for a nice article about Chenery House:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilmaga...house.html

Roger, I cannot think of an appropriate prize that matches the question, so you win my very best wishes for a wonderful week!

[Eva Elisabeth]

I'll give this one another try...please don't hesitate to guess "all-you-can":
General McClellan once complained about the international group line-up of the army and at the same time boasted of his language skills. He had addressed soldiers in eight different languages to no avail.
Which languages did he try?