Friday, November 16, 2012

Halloween Remnants in Victorian Cedarburg

Every year my mom and I visit Cedarburg, WI to celebrate her birthday. Cedarburg is an old town that was founded in 1845. Many of the original buildings remain, including some beautiful Victorian houses. Some of those houses on the main street are now gift shops. There are also gift shops in the Cedarburg Woolen Mill/Cedar Creek Settlement, which is pictured below.  


This is a view from The Cedarburg Interurban Bridge. This bridge is very old too. It was built in 1907 by Carnegie Steel. Trains ran over this bridge until 1940.

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Unlike last year, there weren't many Halloween decorations on the day we went. I suppose the Cedarburg stores are trying to get the same jump on Christmas that every other store is, because they seemed to be more focused on that holiday. Still, there were a few reminders of Halloween left. One was this ghoulish decoration:

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You'll also see a cute little white pumpkin in this picture if you look closely.

One other Halloween decoration we saw was this set of pumpkins outside The Schroeder Guest House. For those who are interested, this house was built in 1856. It is now a bed and breakfast.

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Have you ever seen marbleized pumpkins like these?

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This house is so beautiful. My favorite part of it is, of course, the ornate iron work on the porch top!

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That wooden gingerbread ornamentation at the bottom is so cool too!

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This house is probably my favorite on the block. Chances are good that I will like any house with a turret.

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Here's some more beautiful Victorian woodwork on a house that is now a gift shop. This is one of my favorite places to shop in Cedarburg. Every room is filled with gift items and decorations for a different holiday! They have some outstanding Halloween items.

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There is so much stored in each room. This photo will give you an idea of how full the rooms are.

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Isn't that eye cool? Each window in this room had a cat eye in it. I've seen photos of these window eyes online and in magazines, but this was the first time I was in a room with any. They're really pretty effective!

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This little guy ended up leaving with us:

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He's a pretty realistic crow in size and detail.

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Of course, there are some rumors about Cedarburg being haunted. When a place is this old, you're bound to hear some stories! I even heard one from a person who lives in that town. There are plenty of Cedarburg ghost stories posted online and there's even a Gothic History Tour of Cedarburg each October.

There's a ghost story attached to another old Cedarburg Mill, as well as The Stagecoach Inn. If you search "Haunted Cedarburg" online, you'll find quite a few results. Here's a page with some brief accounts: Haunted Cedarburg


19 comments:

  1. Cedarburg is such a pretty town! I love that little white pumpkin in the store window. it instantly made me think of Jack Skellington and in combination with the striped awnings, the picture has quite a Tim Burton vibe going on.

    The marbleized pumpkins are lovely and you already know how I feel about the turreted house! ;) I'm so glad Mr Crow accompanied you home. He's fabulous!

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  2. beautiful houses - thank you for sharing!

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  3. Ooh, I was waiting for this post so I could find out where the pics came from. =)

    It looks very New England-ish there. Is there a special reason you guys go there or is it just a tradition thing?

    Love those cat eye decorations. Very cool!

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  4. Looks like a really fun town. Those cat eyes are wild.

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  5. Oh wow, all the houses have such beautiful detail - I love every single one!! And I covet your new crow ... it's wrong of me, I know. ;o)

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  6. Little Gothic Horrors ~ It sure is! You know how much I love Victorian houses, so that right there is reason enough for me to enjoy Cedarburg. Now that you mention the Tim Burton connection to that photo, I can totally see it! How cool is that? What's funny is that I didn't even notice the little white pumpkin until that photo was enlarged on my computer.

    Yeah! I'd love to know the name of those marbleized pumpkins. I'm sure they're some special variety with a cool name. Oh yes, I know your thoughts on the turreted house. :) I was so happy with that little crow! He was marked as a Halloween item, so he was half price. Crows are year round decorations for me, so I'm always happy to find another!

    Asherah ~ I'm glad you enjoyed these photos! It's always fun to have people to share these experiences with. I'm in love with all the Victorian houses here!

    Dex ~ Haha! Yeah, you got a bit of a sneak peek, didn't you? ;) Hopefully those Flickr updates are acting more as a preview than as a spoiler. The reason I'm updating the Flickr page first, is so I can take the photos from there. Blogger has decided that I've stored enough photos with them and cut me off! Unless I want to pay them, which I don't. :)

    Yeah? I'd like to go to New England some time. After chatting with a few people from that area, I've seen some really cool New England photos! So there are a lot of Victorian houses around there too?

    We've gone to Cedarburg to celebrate my mom's birthday for probably the last seven years or so. It started just because she wanted to see Cedarburg, then it turned into a yearly tradition. It's been a good tradition for November, since there are usually some beautiful fall leaves and Halloween decorations out in the area. Not so much this year, but it was still a fun time!

    Also, there's a California Pizza Kitchen in that area, so that's the birthday dinner stop. :)

    Yeah, those cat eyes were perfect for the type of house they were in. Also, they were pretty spooky peering over those piles of stuff.

    Bob ~ Yes, it was a lot of fun! Cedarburg has a lot going on at other times of the year too. Starting November 9 and going through December 25, there are tons of Christmas events going on. I knew you'd notice the cat eyes! I say that because I remember you noticing the eyes I stuck on the pumpkins and also the eyes I put in the flowers. There's an eye theme going on here... I noticed recently that I have a creepy hand theme going. I tend to notice and post photos of creepy hands coming out of the darkness.

    Insomniac's Attic ~ Me too! Don't you just want to move into one of those houses? Actually it's not impossible. That one with the turret is for sale, and the one with the pumpkins is a bed and breakfast. So you could at least stay there. I'd probably choose to stay at this one over the other bed and breakfast that comes with ghosts...

    Haha! It's OK to covet my crow. Thank you. :)

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  7. I love that house! What a pretty place.

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  8. Enjoyed your post Justine. That is a great little town. Was there two years ago for their oktoberfest celebration and had a great time. It's so fun to see the pics of the houses and shops- I remember them. The one that is your favorite was mine as well. I will have to make a point of getting up there next October after reading all your great info!

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  9. Jessica ~ The one with the turret? Yeah, there really are a lot of pretty architectural details to notice on this street!

    The October Boy ~ Thanks! How was Cedarburg's Oktoberfest? Yeah, these places should look about the same as they did two years ago, or 100 years ago for that matter. :)

    I bet that house is a lot of people's favorite! Well, if you'd like to see the Halloween decorations, I'd say October is the time to go. There isn't much left in November anymore. We might need to plan our trip a little earlier next year! I always forget that you used to live around here. It's fun to get a comment from someone who's familiar with this place!

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  10. I love wandering around towns like this. Your pictures capture everything so well.

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  11. Adsila ~ I know you do. :) I was thinking you might enjoy this post, because you like looking at old buildings and searching out a few ghosts! Although these buildings aren't the abandoned variety, there's still a lot of history there. Thanks! I was happy with the details I caught.

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  12. Actually it was more the first photo that reminded me of places around me. Growing up around this area there were quite a few industrial/mill areas by the waterfront.

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  13. Dex ~ Oh, that makes sense. Do you have any photos up on your Flickr page or anywhere else of some old buildings in your area? I'm sure there are a lot of cool old houses in your state! I'm not usually around a lot of old mills, since those would be more in the country. Milwaukee does have its share of Victorian houses, though. That and old warehouses, storefronts, and bars from a century ago.

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  14. You see houses like that in Atlantic Canada, where I'm from. Its wonderful to see places that have managed the tricky business of combining the old and new.

    Ali

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  15. Ali ~ I hadn't given much thought to Canadian Victorian houses until now. I wonder if there are any differences in our Victorian house styles? I know what you mean. I'm happy for any old building that's kept nice and standing. I don't think there's a whole lot of new to combine with the old in downtown Cedarburg, as far as the buildings themselves. Many have been nicely updated, though!

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  16. I love towns like that, that have retained their original character, looks like a fun time.

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  17. Candace ~ Hey! Thanks for stopping by. It was a lot of fun. It's amazing when a whole town can keep its character like this. A lot of places have only a few old houses left here and there. A few days ago, I looked up some old photos of Cedarburg to see how much it had changed. A lot looked the same in the old photos, aside from the shop signs and the 1950s cars parked on the street.

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  18. What a lovely house! They don't make houses like that anymore.

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  19. Kweeny ~ No, they don't! Not unless someone is building a reproduction Victorian house from scratch anyway. That's a dream of mine! I'm sure it would cost a lot of money, but how cool would it be to have a beautiful "old" house without all the old plumbing and electricity to deal with? I know I could have tons of fun shopping for antique furniture and decorations to fill a house like that!

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