Sorry about the lack of posts here lately. We’ve had a slight time management problem…but it’s a good kind! We’ve had so many visitors it’s been hard to get blog posts written!
I’m going to do a quick round-up of a few visitor questions that I’ve had over the past several weeks. I wasn’t able to answer the questions definitely at the time, so I told people to check our blog and I would post when I found out.
Where did Lew and Susan meet?
They met at a party at Susan’s sister and brother-in-law’s home, Lane Place. Of course, Lew had already had encounters with Susan’s family–when he was a boy, he sneaked into the Elston homestead hoping for a glimpse of their piano!
Is that Lew’s sink?
It is! He initially had water supplied by a cistern on top of the tower. That must not have provided enough water for him, because he later had a 30-foot well dug in the basement. We believe he had the sink so accessible in the mechanical room of the Study’s main floor so he could clean his paintbrushes.
Is that a water pipe?
Yes! That is an oriental narghile, or water pipe, that Lew brought home from Constantinople. It’s made of clear, blue glass with floral designs painted on it and a terra cotta top piece. The flowers appear to be burgundy hibiscus, yellow roses, and bittersweet. On one flower petal is the sultan’s tughra in a circle, on the next flower petal is a gold oval with: “B. Fucmez – Constantinople” around some Turkish writing. Under this is a small circle with what may be “LEW” in it.
