Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Hays House Dresser for VTT

Being primarily a quilting blog, I don't often stray into other territory, but I just have to join Vintage Thingie Thursday and discuss some of the antique and vintage furniture that my grandparents passed along to me when they downsized their living arrangements. This week, I'm going to showcase the Hays House dresser:

My family refers to this dresser as the "Hays House dresser" because it came from the Hays House in Council Grove, Kansas. The Hays House was built in 1857 by Seth Hayes, a grandson of Daniel Boone. It was a last-stop place for supplies for westward travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. It has been used as gathering place for church services, court trials, bawdy theatricals, politicians' speeches, a general store, a restaurant and hotel. Among its early patrons were George A. Custer and Jesse James. Seth Hays was a business man making a fortune off the trail traffic. Hays also had a huge stone barn east of town (still there) and adjoining a wooded area in a bow in the Neosho River where travelers camped. In the barn he kept and traded horses with the travelers whose teams were travel-weary. He had about all the bases covered.
I love the detailing on this dresser. Like the hand-crafted quilts I adore, it's obvious this furniture was built not only to last, but to be pretty. From the scalloped top above the mirror and at the sides behind the candle holders....
to the inscribed designs in the drawers, this piece of furniture was someone's work of art.
However, when my grandparents got the dresser, it didn't look this way. The current beautiful appearance is due to the work my grandfather put into refinishing it. Here is that story in his own words:


When Helen Judd inherited the place from her grandmother, she got an architect and converted the place to its current use which is a restaurant. In the process, she took out all the upstairs bedrooms and added a bar and extra restaurant space. In disposing of the old furniture, I asked about the oak dresser and made a deal with her to reconstruct another dresser for her and let me have the one I wanted. The oak dresser looked terrible-painted green, drawers coming apart, one candle shelf completely missing, some of the casters missing, part of the drawer pulls mashed and some completely missing, and the top badly warped. Underneath it all, I knew it was solid and beautiful oak wood. I also loved the mirror frame with its filigree. So I stripped the green paint, took it all apart and re-glued everything, made a new candle shelf, repaired the mashed brass drawer pulls and found a new one which matched closely enough to use, and put in new mirror glass. Then I took the warped top and laid it in the sun on a rich patch of green grass. After several hours, the concave side next to the grass absorbed enough moisture from the grass to make it expand and bend the wood back into its present fairly flat surface. I have no idea of the dresser's origins or when it was placed in the upstairs room of the tavern, but I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the piece.

Many thanks to my grandfather providing both the history of the Hays House (which I used nearly word for word) and his personal experience in refurbishing the dresser.

I hope you've enjoyed the story of the Hays House dresser. I'll be linking up for Vintage Thingie Thursday. So head on over to the Colorado Lady's site, and check on the other Vintage Thingie Thursday entrants.

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35 comments:

  1. Thank you for this wonderful story and history behind your dresser. You are fortunate to have so much knowledge of family possessions. I thoroughly enjoyed your post today.

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  2. Your grandfather did a great job restoring it. I thought the way he fixed the warp was especially interesting.

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  3. That is a gorgeous dresser and what a wonderful history and restoration story to go with it. What a treasure you have!

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  4. What a wonderful story. I just love pieces with that kind of history. It's one of reasons I am so crazy for vintage items...the history.

    I'm visiting from Coloradolady. Please drop by my cottage for a visit and take a peek at the details for the three new linky parties I'll be starting up the first week of June.

    Have a wonderful Memorial weekend!

    Liz @ the Brambleberry Cottage

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  5. How blessed to own a piece of family history and to have your grandfather's own words to tell the story is priceless! Thank you for sharing!
    Hugz,
    Kim

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  6. I just love how you included your grandfathers story with this post, what an amazing piece of furniture after he restored it to the treasure it is. I am so glad you linked in today, wonderful addition to VTT!

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  7. That's fabulous. Your grandfather put a lot of work into that and it is beautiful!

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  8. What a great story. We spent at year at Fort Leavenworth, KS(not the prison but the school!). I just loved all the history of the Santa Fe Trail and spent the year volunteering at the museum on post.
    Thanks for the informative post.
    Fondly,
    Ann
    @
    The Tattered Tassel

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  9. Wow! That is such a neat story. Your grandpa really has some talent! It's so nice to have you join us today...welcome to VTT!

    Sarah

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  10. This is a great piece! Don't you love it that it has a story!? That's the best!

    ~Liz

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  11. what a precious furniture and came with so much history and should be cherish forever! love the furniture.. sooo beautifully crafted! thanks for sharing.. Happy VTT
    xo
    fitty

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  12. Great history, and great piece. Didn't know warped wood could be fixed like that. Your grandpa did a great job, all around, getting the dresser, fixing it, and writing the story.

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  13. Your grandfather obviously knew what he was doing. Interesting history and beautiful dresser.

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  14. How wonderful that you have this piece of Family and Kansas History. I so enjoyed your grandfathers story. It not only was informative about the restoration, but showed a great appreciation for preservation of history. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  15. Hi Michelle. I am finally taking the time to visit all VTT entries this week as I absolutely love these post. Your story and photo of the dresser is informative and entertaining. So appropriate for today. I have several oak pieces from my dad who was an antique dealer. Stop by sometimes. Blessings
    QMM

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  16. Candle shelves, hmm? Not for clumsy people or those with small children. Great story.

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  17. Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of furniture that is so filled with history.

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  18. What a wonderful piece and to have such a detailed history really adds to it. A true treasure :)

    Blessings!
    Gail

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  19. What a wonderful piece of American history you have and it's so great that your grandfather was able to see through all that ugly green paint to the beauty that was underneath it all! Happy VTT and thanks for sharing!

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  20. This wonderful old dresser is quite simply gorgeous. I'm so happy that your grandfather rescued it and that it now has a wonderful home.
    Happy VTT..have a lovely weekemd..

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  21. Just popping back in to thank you for visiting and leaving your sweet comment on my “Transformation Thursday”; Wicker Pram! I was so excited when I found this wicker pram with the red and white gingham hood and red wheels, I knew, of course, that I had to add red geraniums.
    Hugz,
    Kim

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  22. That's a beautiful antique and a special story!

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  23. Beautiful dresser! Its great that you have your grandfather's account of how he restored it...love that he got the warp out by lying the piece on the grass!

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  24. What a beautiful dresser and mirror!! I know the Hays House in Council Grove. Did you know that the town is named for the grove of trees near the Hays House where the Native chief met with the US government reps and made the agreement to allow white settlers to cross, not to settle but to CROSS, Indian territory (Kansas) to get to Santa Fe and for wagon trains to cross carrying supplies. Of course we know that that treaty was eventually broken by the US government as they took more land away from the Indians and allowed white settlers in to homestead.

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  25. What a beautiful dresser and mirror! And thank you so much for the back story, how wonderful to know that much of it's history.

    Happy VTT!
    Sally

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  26. Amazing dresser and wonderful story
    *hugs*deb

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  27. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog yesterday. Your story is right up my alley being a Kansas girl. I did a post several weeks ago about a park here dedicated to the Santa Fe Trail. The dresser is so beautiful, you are so fortunate to own it. I love the intricate carvings. Your work as a quilter looks impecable. Have a wonderful holiday.

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  28. I love these beautiful old pieces & have rescued several! They have such character don't they?

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  29. Michelle,

    This dresser is completely beautiful. It gave my heart a thrill just reading about it.What a wonderful history it has.

    I'm so glad you strayed from a quilting story and took the time to share with us!

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  30. I love this! Thanks so much for visiting my blog www.budgetblonde.com I hope you check back often!

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  31. I don't mind this not being a quilting post at all. I love to learn about the other aspects of quilters' life! ;) I thoroughly enjoyed this story - what a neat story! Thanks for sharing.

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  32. What a beautiful dresser, and I love the story behind it! You're lucky having such a treasure!

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  33. What a wonderful treasure you have in this piece of furniture! It is beautiful!! And it's history makes it even more amazing.

    Oh, and I just read you post about binding. I almost dread when I finish a quilt and have to do the binding. LOL

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  34. Wow! I am completely in awe of the care that went into restoring this dresser. It is beautiful -- a definite treasure. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  35. I really enjoyed your post with the history relating to the furniture. Your Grandfather did a great job of restoring it, I was interested in how he laid the top out in the sun to help take out the warping.
    Thanks for visiting my blog post this week!

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Your comments brighten my day. :-)