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Arms museum to display decorations
Ornaments and toys from the museum’s collection will be on display.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Arms family, one of Youngstown’s first families, saw many Christmases come and go in the half-century that it occupied Greystone, its mansion on Wick Avenue. Changing tastes were reflected in the decorations displayed in the arts-and-crafts-style residence during those years — 1905 to 1960.
The structure, of course, is now the Arms Family Museum of Local History. It is the showpiece of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, which preserves its English manor house appeal.
This holiday season, the MVHS is providing a glimpse of how the home might have looked at Christmas over the past couple of centuries with an exhibition titled "A Journey to Christmas Past." It opens Friday.
Each room will include a Christmas tree, decorations and toys in the style of a particular era. Visitors can walk through the rooms as they tour the mansion.
“The Arms family would have been able to see a progression of Christmas trees,” said Leann Rich, manager of education and external relations.
The exhibits actually go back to the second half of the 19th century, before the house was built. The museum staff is constructing all of the exhibits.
“We’ve never done anything this extravagant before for Christmas,” said Rich.
The idea grew from a tree-decorating project the museum has undertaken the past couple of years at the Davis Center at Fellow Riverside Gardens at Mill Creek Park. The 1950s-style tree proved so popular that the museum decided to re-create trees from other eras.
In the new exhibition, a German cotton tree, or “white tree,” (circa 1870) will grace the entrance room of the mansion.
These early trees — wrapped in cotton — were decorated with popcorn strings, nuts and berries, and colored-paper ornaments as well as toys and gifts.
Other rooms will house:
UA German feather tree (circa 1880), covered with dyed goose feathers and decorated with figural and geometric-shaped ornaments.
UA Victorian-era tree (circa 1890), decorated with Dresden ornaments, which were paper ornaments made in Dresden, Germany, and tinsel and candles. It will also incorporate the Victorian tradition of hanging a pickle on the tree the night before Christmas. Whichever child was the first to find the pickle on Christmas morning would receive a special surprise.
UA retro 1950s tree, with more than 300 ornaments and lights, and a Youngstown-made Plakie twirler. The twirler was an ornament that looked like a carousel with a propeller inside. It had an open bottom that allowed the heat from the lights to spin the propeller. The now-rare ornaments, manufactured by the Plakie Toy Co., sometimes melted because the plastic couldn’t withstand the heat.
A freshly cut tree will be in the solarium to highlight the tradition of going into the woods to chop down a Christmas tree.
Other seasonal decorations will include a porcelain china and sterling silver service in the dining room and a gumdrop tree in the butler’s pantry.
Children will be able to make ornaments to take home in the Anne Kilcawley Christman Hands-On Room.
The museum’s ornament collection, as well as historical holiday postcards, greeting cards and photographs, will be on display upstairs.