Our Favorite Things: Staff Picks

When giving my tour I always highlight the Drawing Room table in the Walnut Grove Exhibit Room.  As we mention on tours, we do not have many photographs of the interior of 610 Radcliffe Street, but we do have a few of the interior of the Grundy Family Country Home, Walnut Grove Farm, which once stood near the banks of the Neshaminy Creek in Bristol Township. 

What fascinates me about this is that we have a photograph (circa 1930s) of the table with the family treasures on it.  If you compare the picture to what you see today while visiting the Museum, we thankfully have most of those objects still in our collection.  This is what makes the Grundy Museum so rare.  We are fortunate to have about 80 percent of the pieces that belonged to the family in our Museum Collection.  Some were from Walnut Grove, and others were always here at 610 Radcliffe Street.

Many of the furnishings at Walnut Grove Farm pre-date Joseph Grundy’s purchase of the house in 1895 from the estate of his late grandmother, Rebecca. The Rococo Revival marble top table would have originally been designed to stand in the middle of a room as a parlor table, however, here it is pushed up against the wall on the pier between two windows. Hung above it is a large gilt framed pier mirror, also in the Rococo Revival style. Large mirrors hung between a pair of windows were especially popular in Drawing Rooms in the mid-1800s. The brass and marble parlor lamp with its long, crystal fringe is the focal point of the table.  Interestingly, lamps such as this would have been very high style in the 1850’s, and rather out of date by the turn of the century. However, in keeping with the spirit of Walnut Grove Farm as a family estate, Joseph kept many of the family heirlooms he would have known in the house during his youth.

Nick Rizzo, Administrative Coordinator