Military-themed event to benefit Barnhisel House

Photo by: Robert K. Yosay

Photo

Colette Chuey displays a print of Ulysses S. Grant as she holds the jacket of an authentic World War I uniform at the Barnhisel House in Girard. The Girard Historical Society is having a Cemetery Walk to raise money for the upkeep of the house, which is a museum that features antiques from the 1800s.

By Jeanne Starmack

starmack@vindy.com

GIRARD

Five soldiers from the Revolutionary War through World War II are going to help the Girard Historical Society raise money for its historic Barnhisel House and museum.

They’ll be at their graves in the Girard Cemetery to greet walkers who go on the society’s Cemetery Walk on Saturday.

They’ll be dressed in uniform, and they’ll tell their stories to what the society hopes is a good turnout for the walk’s third year, said Colette Chuey, society vice president.

Chuey will channel Ruth Rulli from World War II’s Women’s Auxiliary Corps in this year’s military-themed walk.

Other society members will resurrect soldiers from the Revolutionary, Spanish American, Civil and first world wars.

By bringing the cemetery’s military history to life, the society hopes to keep the past alive at the Barnhisel House at 1011 N. State St., which was the home of a prominent family in the early to mid-1800s.

All of the proceeds from the walk will go toward upkeep of the house, which the society bought in 1975 and began restoring in 2000.

Photographs in some of the rooms show the house in a sad state of deterioration before the restoration, which eight to 10 society members undertook to keep the society from simply tearing it down, said Ralph Chuey, Colette’s husband.

“Six of us got together and said, ‘No, we’re going to do what we have to do to bring it back,’” Ralph said Thursday as he and Colette showed off the big kitchen filled with period pieces from an old iron cook stove to a free-standing cupboard filled with antique china.

The cupboard, said Colette, was a flea-market find. The society bought it for $300, and Soft Touch Furniture Repair and Upholstery restored it for free. The company took 12 layers of paint off and discovered a date inside a drawer: 1863.

The house is furnished and decorated with antiques that, while not all originally from the house, date to the time the Barnhisels lived there.

“This house was considered a mansion back then,” said Ralph.

The front staircase has a new banister of hand-tooled cherry wood — the original was no longer there when the restoration began.

But the original black walnut stair treads are gleaming again, out now from underneath layers of tile.

In a downstairs room, there are cases that display period jewelry and items that were found in the walls of the house and in the yard — including a hat, a sock and shoes.

Upstairs in closets hang period clothes above shoes and toys, while antique beds look as if they’re waiting for owners to turn down the covers and snuggle in.

In a room at the end of the hall is a blanket chest that made its way over from Pennsylvania with the Barnhisels in a covered wagon.

People often have no idea how many museum pieces are in the house or how old they are, Colette said.

The Cemetery Walk, at $5 per adult and $3 per student, includes a tour of the house. It begins there at 4 p.m. — arrive a little early.