Holiday open houses at the 1857 Tanner House Museum in Aurora will begin Sunday, Dec. 4, and feature eight specially-decorated rooms. New this year Santa and Mrs. Claus will be visiting on the opening Sunday, to offer holiday greetings and photo ops in the elaborate parlor.
The House will be open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4 as well as subsequent Sundays, December 11 and 18. Other openings will be Fridays in December (Dec. 9, 16, 23 and 30) from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m..
It is a tradition for the Historical Society to be host to guest decorators from the community, and, according to Society president, Mary Clark Ormond, it has produced a wide variety of themes and styles over the years.
One of the rooms this year will have a new twist. Ormond said “Mr. Tanner’s Library will have the flavor of a museum display because it is devoted to items from the personal collection of Aurora surveyor Shawn Van Kampen.”
Van Kampen has been collecting antique surveying equipment and memorabilia for nearly half-century. William Tanner was a surveyor and surveyed several early subdivisions of land in Aurora.
“This (situation) is so interesting because Shawn feels a kinship with pioneer Illinois surveyors like Mr. Tanner and Abraham Lincoln,” Ormond added. She said a notable piece that will be on display is a compass thought to be by the hand of Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, and probably going back to approximately 1830.
Other themes in the house this year range from a formal Victorian dinner to a 1960s Christmas with the Rat Pack and friends.
Admission to the house is free, although donations are appreciated. It is at 304 Oak Avenue, 60506, the corner of Oak Avenue and Cedar Street. After the holiday events the House will be closed until opening Memorial Day weekend. For videos of the House in various seasons, visit www.aurorahistory.org/videos.
—Aurora Historical Society