Times Gone By

In the heyday of the mansion, doing laundry was much more difficult than it is these days. The laundry room at the mansion shows some of the machinery crucial to the process.

The Hegeler Carus Mansion offers a glimpse into the past

Story and Photos by Shannon Serpette

WWhen you first pull up to the Hegeler Carus Mansion in LaSalle, it’s hard for a tour, and you walk from room to room and hear the stories about not to stare. The massive mansion looks like it’s something you might have seen in your childhood while watching Scooby Doo or the Addams

Family. With a history that spans almost 150 years and with 57 rooms to explore, the mansion is an excellent place for curious minds to visit. When you step inside the mansion the family who lived here, you half wonder if you’ve stepped back in time. Even for those who work there, that feeling of awe never seems to go away. “I am forever spellbound by its magnificence,” Tricia Kelly, the tour director of Hegeler Carus Mansion,

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Pictures of Alwin Carus are located in the children’s room. Alwin, one of the children of Mary and Paul Carus, was born in 1901 and lived in the family home all his life, dying in 2004.

said. “The family’s legacy is impressive too, but I’ll tell you the honest truth: For me personally, it’s the stuff. I love stuff, and the mansion has some of the coolest stuff I’ve ever seen – the static electric generator, the Buddhist shrine, the Alexander Graham Bell graphophone, the cameras, the books.

“Everything in here has its own tale to tell as well as its importance to the history of this house. It’s no exaggeration to say that there are artifacts here that rival those in more nationally known museums like The Smithsonian,” she said.

For those who frequently visit old, stately homes, this mansion offers something different because of the ahead-oftheir-time views held by the family.

“We are fascinated with these buildings because we grew up with them, but we didn’t grow up in them,” Kelly said. “This is not your typical Victorian home in any way, shape, or form.”

The origins of this house begin with German immigrant Edward Hegeler, who settled in LaSalle and began a business, the Hegeler-Matthiessen Zinc Company, with his business partner and friend, Frederick William Matthiessen, in 1858. Matthiessen State Park was named after Frederick since some of the land for the park was donated to the state of Illinois by his heirs after he died in 1918. Edward and Matthiessen were equals in their intellect and benevolence and remained friends for life.

“They were very good people,” Kelly said.

The Hegeler Carus Mansion was built on the zinc company property and was home to Edward and Camilla Hegeler and their eight children. The tours offered at the mansion focus heavily on the history of both the Hegeler and Carus families, particularly Mary, who was the oldest of Ed-

Hegeler Carus Mansion tour director Tricia Kelly holds up a crosshatch example found at the mansion.

Left: Some of the old toys on display at the Hegeler Carus Mansion. Right: The mansion is full of interesting pieces for onlookers to appreciate.

ward and Camilla Hegeler’s children.

“Edward Hegeler and his family were kind and generous people,” Kelly said.

Unlike many people at the time, Edward was open to different ways of thinking and welcomed viewpoints that were different than his own. The way he raised his children was unusual for that day and age – he encouraged all his children to exercise and stay physically fit. The mansion housed a home gym that had weights for women to tone up with, which was unusual.

“Girls were supposed to be pretty to look at, delicate,” Kelly said.

He also encouraged them to be accomplished free thinkers. Mary, at a time when many women were not involved in the business world, learned and studied the family’s zinc business at a young age.

She became the first woman to graduate from the University of Michigan in engineering and the first female graduate of the School of Mines in Freiberg, Germany. Following graduation, she returned home, met her father’s employee, Paul Carus, fell in love, and married him in 1888.

Paul and Mary raised six children in the mansion. The youngest child was Alwin, who was born in 1901 and continued to live in the mansion until he died just before his 103rd birthday in 2004.

Those who think they know all about the history of the Hegeler and Carus families will undoubtedly hear new information on the tours. Kelly urges visitors, even those who are familiar with the Hegeler and Carus families, to come with fresh eyes and a willingness to learn.

One question Kelly said the employees at the mansion frequently hear is whether the house is haunted. It certainly looks the part, but so far, nothing unusual has happened – much to the disappointment of some of the people who work there.

“We want the house to be haunted because we have questions. We don’t know everything,” Kelly said.

If the house were haunted, Kelly said she would most like to talk to Mary. Since Mary was 50 years ahead of her time in terms of her education and career path, Kelly imagines it must have been hard for her to connect with the typical woman at the time and for them to find much in common with her, which may have been lonely for her. It’s not easy being a trailblazing woman, after all.

“My question for her is very simple: Did you have any friends?” Kelly said.

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