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The
Johnston House Foundation, Inc. is grateful for our dedicated docents
who not only guide visitors through the house, but are so excited about
telling the story of this amazing house and the pioneer family that
built and inhabited it, they embarked on a project - on their own - of
telling the story in costumes of the period. They help bring the
Johnston House alive to residents and visitors alike and their plans to
go to events "inviting" people to come to see the house is applauded by
The Board of Directors.
Here, from Adora Palmer, Chair of the Docent group ...
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"DRESSED UP DOCENTS"
My husband has long referred to those of us who conduct tours at the Johnston House as the "Decent Docents". Well
now we've become the "Dressed Up Decent Docents". Here's how it all began.
During open house Saturdays we would sit in the house imagining the
comings and goings when the house was in its heyday. That led to
speculation about the clothes being worn 150 years ago, and how fun it
would be to wear clothing of that period. We were amazed to discover
that docent Judy Wormal studied historical dress in college - an expert
in our very midst. Before we knew it, we were buying patterns and
material and choosing our outfits. We spread out patterns and fabrics
on the big dining room table during open house and found many visitors
extremely fascinated by the new project. Finally we began actually
cutting out the fabric and doing bits of handwork as folks streamed
through the house. It gave a whole new topic of interest and education
for the tour as we were questioned about styles, laundry habits,
fabrics, etc.
Finally it was time to actually begin putting the dresses together. We
set up a weekly sewing day at my house with Judy at the helm. She
studied the patterns and gave us clear instruction. K.C. Simmons who
had never sewn before, got behind a sewing machine and sewed her heart
out, loving every minute. Joyce Margaroli stuck with hand work. Beth
Bryant, a brand new docent, pitched in. Mary Bettencourt, out of town,
worked on her dress at her cabin. Ken Ayers researched finding a silk
top hat similar to Mr. Johnston's in the upstairs display case.
My outfit happened to be the first one finished and I tried it out at
an open house. Mine is a "going out" dress complete with full hoop. My
family came to see the first showing of the dress. First reaction was
that I looked as if I had gained 100 pounds. (We're not doing corsets,
but can see why they needed them.) My youngest grandson was fascinated
by the hoop skirt and before I knew it he had scampered underneath mine
and thought it was a great hiding place. Maybe that's why they wore
pantaloons. K.C.'s outfit was finished next and we both conducted a
tour in costume and were well received, with lots of questions about
our dresses. Hers is the "at home" style, which only requires a
petticoat. Judy wore hers during the next open house, complete with
hoop, which she ended up showing to many visitors who wanted to see
what a hoop looked like.
Our plans for the historical costumes include strolling Main St. during
Night of Lights to let folks see what goes on at the House on the Hill.
On the third Sat. open house days, we plan to have a couple docents in
costume visit Flower Market and hand out invitations to the house. We'd
like also to enter the July Fourth Parade and invite any with
suggestions for a float to contact us. We also think entering our
outfits in the San Mateo Fair would be a nice spreading of the Johnston
House story with invitation to come visit. We've worked hard on these
dresses but think we'll get a lot of mileage from them as we wear them
to help history of the house come alive.
All material on this website is copyright 2009 The Johnston House Foundation, Inc.
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