< Explore the Rooms>
— The Bedroom —
Click on images to magnify.
At the top of the stairs on the left is the Victorian Bedroom. It is set up as it might have been in the late 1800’s, around the time that Gouverneur was first settled.
All of the furniture is handmade and covering the tops of most of the dressers and bed, you’ll see a large assortment of items that people used to wear and use in earlier times.
In 2014-2015, the Victorian Bedroom was freshly wallpapered, painted and reorganized. Community volunteers and Board members Katie Pistolesi, Diane Goodell, and Sandy Wyman, along with Curator Joe Laurenza, gave the bedroom a much-needed facelift.
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Scattered around the room are items that have been donated to the museum to represent the clothing, cosmetics and customs of Victorian times.
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No indoor plumbing, also meant midnight trips to an outdoor privy. A chamber pot was kept in the bedroom to save a trip outside. Once used, they had to emptied and cleaned with carbolic soap. A chamber pot is located under the left side of our bed. We also have an example of the “Cadillac” of chamber pots, one with a seat and padded cover to the right of the closet door.
In 1848, a law was passed that all homes had to have some sort of toilet. Most had an outdoor privy. Chamber pots were still to be found under beds just because of the convenience. But many houses built in Victorian times remained without an inside toilet until the 1950s.
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