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Nevada's Victorian Tour to be updated
Nevada Daily Mail
The city of Nevada has a long heritage stretching back into the 1800s. Some of that history can still be seen today through the Victorian Homes Tour.
Since 1986, residents and tourists have been able to follow a tour of about 40 locations in Nevada featuring homes and other venues, many built as early as the 1800s.
In 1984, Shirley Bastow, a member of the tourism committee and Bushwhacker Days board beginning in the 1980s, and her husband purchased the John Clack House, built in the 1800s. In 1986, she began looking at all the historic houses in Nevada and wrote descriptions of the houses and their history.
That list of houses and other locations then became a driving and audio tour as Bastow recorded the information on tapes. They even held a bus tour of the homes during the Bushwhacker Days event for a few years.
"I was just trying to put the history back into Bushwhacker Days," Bastow said of her motivation.
The now self-guided tour, with maps provided by the Bushwhacker Museum or chamber of commerce, takes tourist to several sites around Nevada, including buildings and locations such as the Vernon County Courthouse, Bushwhacker Museum, Cottey College, Camp Clark, Deepwood Cemetery, Radio Springs Park and the old jail, believed to be Nevada's oldest remaining structure, built before the Civil War.
Houses are also seen along the route such as along Washington and Sycamore streets and other areas of town. The houses vary as to when they were built, such as the 1800s or early 1900s. Their architectural styles vary and the colors range from yellow to blue or even pink.
Each of the homes have unique histories and features, such as the 24-room Edward T. Steele House built in 1913, the 1886 Daniel P. Stratton House with a three-story, cherry staircase, the birthplace of actor and movie producer John Huston, the 1876 William Joel Stone House -- likely the oldest Nevada home and built by attorney Stone who would become a governor, representative and U.S. senator -- and other houses built or owned by bank presidents, doctors, store owners, attorneys, druggists and even four generations of one family.
After using the same map and brochure describing the locations on the tour since about 2009, those currently involved in the tour just recently began to look into updating the information and the tour itself.
Originally, each of the locations had a small sign indicating it was part of the Victorian Tour, but some of those signs have been lost or destroyed over the years. Some of the buildings have been torn down over time as well.
"Unfortunately, [we] lost some of the history through the cracks as people changed and time went on," said Jennifer Eaton, executive director of the Nevada-Vernon County Chamber of Commerce.
During recent months, Will Tollerton, director of the Bushwhacker Museum, which itself is on the tour, updated the list of locations on the route, removing those that are no longer standing.
Eaton has also participated by looking into designs for the new brochure, looking at other examples such as one used in Fort Scott, Kan. for their historical buildings.
Originally, cassette tapes were provided for tourists to listen to information about the tour, but few remain at the museum and Tollerton says they are rarely requested since tapes have become nearly obsolete. They hope to provide an updated audio tour however.
With the summer opening of the museum on May 1, Tollerton said they hope to have the brochures available by then since they are currently out of even the old brochures and have only copies of them.
Eaton said much of the work has already been done by updating the information. Next they would work on the design and layout before sending it to print.
Tollerton said they wanted to update it so it would be more accurate. Eaton said having a new brochure would also give a better image of the tour and the city and not discourage visitors from participating in the tour.
"We want them to come check out the beautiful places we have," Eaton said. "I think that's important, to have a nice, classy piece that our visitors can come pick up."
Eaton said in just recent weeks someone from out of town called ahead of their visit to Nevada to ask about the Victorian Tour, and Tollerton said many of the 1,500 to 2,000 visitors to the museum during the summer ask about it as well.
"I hope they do it," Bastow said of the goal of updating the tour. "But I hope they do it well and keep the history in it."
Because not all the sites are actually of the Victorian era, Tollerton said they will likely change the name of the tour to something else such as the Historic Homes Tour or something even more general since other places such as a church and armory are also on the route.
Both the Chamber of Commerce and the Bushwhacker Museum have fundraisers approaching with the chamber's Gala on March 7, and the museum's "Night at the Museum" dinner and activities on March 10.