You know what I’m doing this month?
I’m going to shadow a tour guide.
Two reasons I’m going to do that – one, because it’s Christmas time and I want to do something cheery. Two, Lord knows Cape May is a town that knows how to guide a tour properly and no one does it better than the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC). So, on a crisp clear Friday morning I hoof down to the citadel of tourism – The Emlen Physick Estate at 1048 Washington Street. I will be shadowing Maryann Schrobsdorff who has been a MAC tour guide for 10 years.
Maryann is already dressed in her Victorian garb and waiting for the arrival of a school bus loaded with 4th graders from Maud Abrams Elementary School in Lower Township. It’s 9 a.m. She, along with her co-tour guide Audrey Conant, visited the school a couple of weeks earlier and gave a talk to the same kids – this is obviously the Show-N-Tell part of the program. Audrey and Maryann chat about who’s going to deliver the welcoming speech – they agree that Maryann will do it. By some mysterious inner tour guide sense – they hear the school bus pull around and wisk out the door leaving me with my 21st century apparatii (camera, cell phone, camera bag) racing behind to catch up.
Maryann leads the group to the front of the Physick Estate where she begins by telling the 4th graders about the people who lived at the Physick Estate – Dr. Emlen Physick, his widowed mother Mrs. F. M. Ralston, and his maiden aunt Emilie Parmentier. Maryann explains very nicely and most importantly not in a boring way – how the Physick estate came to be built. One of the kids wants to know how much it cost to build the house? Maryann thinks it was about $15,000 – She tells them about the games that Victorian children liked to play. Hide N Seek, Baseball, Kick the Can.
She tells them that Dr. Physick was born in 1879 and died in 1916 and never practiced medicine. He became a doctor because his father wanted him to be a doctor because he came from a long line of famous doctors. “Do you know why, he never worked?” she asks the group. No one can think why. I want to raise my hand and answer “ ‘Cause he was lazy?” But I resist the temptation.
“Because he didn’t have to. He had enough money.” The group seems a little puzzled by that one. Not work. Who has that much money? I’m wondering how much money is enough?
Dr. Physick was more interested in hunting and horse-back riding she tells us. He had horses and peacocks and dogs. The peacocks roamed the estate during the day and at night stayed in the Peacock House which Dr. Physick built for them. He loved dogs and had any where from 12 to 14 dogs at any given time. He took in every stray he found and built a large doghouse for them which has since been moved to West Cape May and is being used as a cottage for people to live in – that’s how big the dog house was. And I’m wondering, can I live in the dog house, ‘cause it sound totally cool.
Dr. Physick owned the first car in Cape May and had the first car accident here when his vehicle crashed into a tree. Hmmm, a little too much holiday punch?
And you know what? I’m fascinated with these small details and I think the kids are too. No one seems to be having an attention deficit. No one is squirming. Everyone is listening and so am I.
As we move inside, Maryann tells us very firmly, but very nicely not to touch anything. I, of course, want to touch everything. The group splits and Audrey takes about half of the kids, the rest stay with Maryann. The Physick Estate is decorated for an 1890s Christmas. We walk through the foyer and into the piano room while Audrey has moved into the front parlor and the dining room. Inside the piano room, Maryann tells us that the Victorians didn’t have television or radio so they played the piano or harp and sang songs to pass the time. They played charades. They also had gadgets like the new fangled stereoscope sitting on one of the tables. Wouldn’t it be great, when no one was looking to pick up the stereoscope? I do not pick up the stereoscope because there are too many people watching and I don’t want to get Maryanne in trouble. Besides, she’s watching.
Again it’s the small details that are so wonderful. Pointing to the chairs about the piano room and adjoining library/sitting room, Maryann informs us that the chairs are not too comfortable – one particular cushioned bench is backless, thus, ensuring that guests will never overstay their welcome. I love it. Where can I buy one?
From here we move into the front parlor where the Christmas tree is decorated and the adjoining dining room is all ready for dinner. The Christmas ornaments were mostly handmade. Cigars, cookies, American flags, and the first ready-made ornaments were glass balls sold by Frank Woolworth. Dr. Physick and Mrs. Ralston were the first on their block to have store-bought ornaments. How extravagant. That’s how the Victorians were, explains Maryann. “They loved stuff. The more stuff the better.” As though Maryann read my mind, she warns against taking a bite out of the cookie ornaments. “They’ve been up there about five years.” Dang! Foiled again.
It’s into the dining room we go. The table is set for a Christmas buffet dinner. Maryann tells us that the Victorians usually sat through 7- 9 courses of food – but it’s ok, she tells us, kids weren’t expected to sit through all that. The courses ranged from “soup to nuts.” Hey I know that phrase as in “You can get everything from soup to nuts there.” I never knew where it came from. Now I know. The Victorians started out with a soup course and finished with nuts.
She reads the menu which includes a game soup, oysters, goose, duck, and creamed parsnips and lobster salad. Maryann points out the different dishes and utensils that are on the table. “You had to really know your manners,” she tells us. “You had to know which fork to use. You had to know that a guest never sits down to the table until the hostess sits down. And when it’s time to leave the table, the hostess looks to the lady to her right and nods. That was the signal. Also, you didn’t talk about certain things at dinner. Politics or religion were never discussed.” People who were not polite did not get invited back.
“What’s politics?”
Well there’s a question for the ages. Maryann handles it very well. “Government.” She also points out that the topiary entwined about the chandelier which cascades to the middle of the table was designed to add a festive allure to the table and yet not interfere with the guest’s ability to see each other across the table.
She tells us about gaslight, explaining that was how rooms were lit before electricity was invented. She turns our attention to the wallpaper which is really cloth. The detailed “leather” beneath the wallpaper looks like wood paneling but is actually linseed oil and paper mâche. The design is created by using a cookie press-like mold. That panel is 127 years old. Man I’d love to touch that. I wonder if I’m real quick….Out of the corner of her eye, she catches one curious young visitor touching the wallpaper and reminds her that this is a no-no.
And it’s off to the Butler’s pantry and the kitchen. Talk about stuff. There are more gadgets in the Butler’s pantry and the kitchen than you can shake a stick at. There’s a mixer, a bread maker, pipes for hot and cold water (no one had hot and cold running water in those days) There’s a cherry pitter, a jar opener, a clothes washing bucket and scrub board even though Mrs. Ralston was wealthy enough to send out her laundry.
I love that stove. Man oh man would I like to get my hands on that and cook up some stuff. Maybe MAC could hire me and I could be the cook and live upstairs.
The tour moves upstairs and then back down the stairs to the waiting school bus. Maryann and Audrey hustle over to the front of the Physick Estate where the next group of Maud Abrams 4th graders are waiting. Just like an actor who has her lines well rehearsed, Maryann starts all over again. Not that her spiel is verbatim. I pick up a quite a few details that I didn’t catch or didn’t hear the first time but she delivers the lines as though it were her first tour with a fresh approach and with the understanding that no question is stupid.
At the completion of this second tour, Maryann says we have a two hour break. We agree to meet back at the Estate around 1:30 or 1:45 for a meeting of the Physick Family Christmas (PFC) guides (of which Maryann is one) with Physick estate curator Elizabeth Bailey and tour manager Barbara Oberholtzer. This will be followed by a PFC tour of the estate for the tour guides.
The guides are sitting around the table, some in costume, some not. A petite woman with short hair comes in and I’m wondering who she is – then I look a little closer and realize that it is our very own Maryann in modern day dress. She takes a seat at the end of the table near Elizabeth. The group is talking about costumes and the fact that they are being held up for some reason. The standard garb is white blouse with blue skirt. I remember Maryann telling me that each of the guides try to gussy up their blouses with a little lace or jewelry, like a cameo, as long as it is in keeping with the period. They talk about the “script” for the PFC and the “new pages.” I feel like I’m back stage and the actors are eager to finalize their part before the curtain goes up.
And I’m trying to figure out what the script is about. After a while it all becomes clear. It seems that in the Physick Family Christmas a holiday party is in the works. Mrs. Ralston and her maiden sister Emilie are busy getting ready for the affair but are taking the time out of their busy day to show their visitors the house. It is decided to forgo the lawn speech because the ladies of the house would never address people out on the lawn. They would answer the door – or rather the butler would – but on this given day Frances and Emilie will answer the door. Discussion centers on whether or not the group will split as they did earlier that morning. Emilie taking half and Frances the either. The dynamic is sharper with both ladies conducting the tour but economics comes into play as well as logistics if the touring group is a large one. Next this crème de la crème of tour guides talk about “staying in character.”
“Someone and there’s always one,” says Audrey, “and it’s usually a man, tries to trip you up and ask a question that brings you back into the 21st century.” It’s usually a question about the heating or the plumbing, Audrey, assuming her Frances Ralston stage voice, tells them “Well, I don’t know anything about such matters. You would have to talk to Emlen about that.”
The group agrees that the best time to step out of character and answer those questions which require a return to real time is just as they are finishing a tour of Mrs. Ralston’s bedroom and before the group proceeds out into the hallway to complete the tour.
Elizabeth advices the guides to try to stick to the script. This suggestion is met with just the faintest hint of grumbling.
Elizabeth also mentions a timeline study completed recently by Architectural historian Joan Burke on the Physick Estate. She says much of what they surmised about Mrs. Ralston in particular is wrong. She never divorced Mr. Ralston. They were separated at the time of his death in 1859. Mrs. Ralston bought the land in Cape May in that same year although the house wasn’t built until 1879. What their presence in Cape May was at the time is also in question. School records indicate Emlen went to school at Cape Island but they could have lived in several places as so many of Cape May’s early residents did.
So, suddenly I realize we’re in the middle of an historical gossip session. I’m lovin’ it. Emilie was raised in a convent you know. Frances was married about three times. Pshaw such scandalous behavior. The ladies want to know what that picture of Emlen and his dog is doing on Emlen’s bed.
He’s wrapping the present as a gift for someone, Elizabeth says. I already knew that because Maryann mentioned it on our tour. By the way, the bathroom is the best part of Emlen’s room. He actually had a commode and it flushed pretty close to the way they do now. But who’s this present for? The ladies want to know.
“His mother, of course,” says someone.
“Maybe Mabel.”
Who’s Mabel?
Well no one really knows but there’s a picture of her in his bedroom. He had a lot of pictures of a lot of ladies.
“He was a gay blade.”
Everyone laughs in recognition that this phrase doesn’t have quite the same meaning as it did in 1890. Everyone also agrees that there is enough nuance of facts to be able to embellish the tour without breaking with history. Again it’s all about the details. This is the stuff that’s fascinating because the fact is – Although his mother was married thrice, Emlen never married once. Why? There are no letters of documents.
Everyone is also very excited about the new Billiard room. In reality the room we are in now was the original billiard room. The gentlemen came up here to get away from the ladies and smoke cigars, drink hard liquor and play billiards. And you just know they talked politics and religion and all the other taboo topics they needed to keep away from at dinner. The billiard room is now in Emilie’s old bedroom and next to the ladies drawing room. That would be the place where the ladies retired to freshen up – smoke cigars, drink hard liquor and talk politics – just kidding.
Finally the discussion ends with a nod in absensia to Don Schweikert of Saltwood House who recently donated an 1890 Victorian calling card bowl and bud vase.
It’s going on 3 p.m. and Maryann and I and the rest of the guides are going on another tour of the Physick Estate (that makes 3 thus far today). This one, however, will be a dress rehearsal for the Physick family Christmas led by Audrey, playing the part of Frances Ralston and Carol Hartman playing the part of her younger sister Emilie Parmentier. Well, I don’t want to spoil this for you, nor could I really because this tour is something you simply have to do. The two women are delightful together. Their repartee is right on the money and I had no doubt that these two really were Frances (Franny) and Emilie. It’s the cutest thing, the two sisters take little digs at each other, they take the opportunity while we’re in Emlen’s bedroom of wondering out loud about the mystery women in his life, and they are terrific downstairs in the dining room recapping some of the dinners they have hosted or attended. It’s all the gossipy little stuff that you just love and they never stray from character.
Well, folks it’s going on 4 p.m., tea time at the Physick Estate – I think that’s why Emilie and Franny hustled us right out onto the front porch as fast as they could once we’d toured Franny’s room. I figure Emilie must be a little untidy in her housekeeping because her room is upstairs from the rest of the family and there was no mention of our seeing it. I’d sneak upstairs but that Franny is even more vigilant than Maryann when it comes to keeping an eye on us.
Maryann, who enjoyed the tour immensely, will be back in costume by 6:30 in anticipation of the Evening Wassail tour. I am scheduled to meet her back at the Estate at 6 p.m. for the tour and reception in which Wassail punch and cookies will be served.
O.K. Full Disclosure: I get home. I fall asleep and I wake up dreaming of waffles. Waffle? Wassail? OH Pshaw. A day in the life of the tour guide has clearly been a little too exciting and fun filled for me. And mea culpas to Maryann for standing her up. All that aside, take a tour. Take a Physick Estate tour and listen carefully because you never know what insights you’ll pick up about the fascinating lives of Emlen, Franny and Emilie.
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