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Historic house prepared for a Victorian Christmas

The dining table at Lowrie House is set with trays and tiered stands, ready for the Butler County Historical Society's Christmas Cookie Tour.
Guests can take cookie tour Dec. 4

Visitors to the Butler County Historical Society's Dec. 4 Christmas Cookie Tour will find a lot familiar about the Victorian decorations in the Senator Walter Lowrie House, 123 W Diamond St.

That's because many of the traditions and sights of what we now consider a good, old-fashioned Christmas were started by the Victorians, said Jennifer Ford the society's director. And the Lowrie House is decorated as it would have been when the Sullivan family lived there in the years 1880 to 1910, the High Victorian period.

“This is the height of exuberant decor,” said Ford.

“The Victorians didn't have Michael's. They made decorations out of the same fabrics they used for their clothes,” she said. “Now the Sullivans had some very nice clothes.

“For example, the bows in the corners of the room are made of reproduction French taffeta. The velvet ribbons used on the tree is the same fabric as in their clothes.”

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