The Denny sisters paint a fine picture of what life was like for those with means in the early days of the 20th century. Stop by the Denny House today and you will find yourself in their world of fine living, freshly restored and ready to be enjoyed by a new generation.
Mary and Helen married, had glamorous careers in opera and music and spent most of their lives in Chicago and travelling abroad, far from their hometown.
Middle child Josephine, chose another path, and the Greene County Historical Society Museum on Rolling Meadows Road can thank her for that.
Josephine got her Bachelor of Science degree in 1915, and then set off like her sisters to explore the world. But after studying abroad and teaching in private schools she returned home, unmarried to live with her mother. Hers would be a long life of genteel volunteer work to better the community through social and educational services, including teaching science at Central Greene High School. But as the world changed after World War II and the modern culture of today came sprawling in, a matronly Miss Denny, now in her late 70s found another mission: to save for posterity the beauty and good taste of the past that still adorned every room of her elegant home on High Street.
When the old county poor farm closed in 1965, residents moved across Rolling Meadows Road to the 20th century convenience of the Curry Nursing Home. The stately 1840’s brick mansion with its poorhouse additions was reclaimed by the county, only to sit vacant for the next five years as the commissioners pondered what to do with this Gothic blast from the past.
Josephine Denny and the Greene County Historical Society to the rescue.
As president of the organization that had been salvaging bits of the past – mostly indigenous artifacts – since the 1920s, Miss Denny was more than ready to save artifacts from the life she had grown up living
There’s little recorded mention of the conversations she must have had within her network of families and friends with pioneer pedigrees who had inherited old houses and estates filled with 19th century finery. But when she lead the charge to petition county government for stewardship of the land and buildings and turn it into the Greene County Historical Museum, the donations came rolling in.
The first batch of Victorian furniture, appliances, garments and photographs were more than enough to recreate the parlors, dining rooms, music rooms and bedrooms that Miss Denny remembered so well.
Miss Denny loved to point out that the museum she helped create was just that – a museum, not a mausoleum – a place to keep history alive and available to be enjoyed by all who come to experience the past as the Denny sisters lived it.
Today, the Denny House has become a museum piece as well, restored by Pam and Kent Marisa to much of its original elegance, a place where guests are welcome to come there for parties, cultural events and even leisurely weekend retreats. Of course, it is also the perfect place for a fairy tale wedding.
It’s not hard to imagine Miss Denny smiling.