Initially a boarding/rooming home, the Cliff Home/Cliff Lodge operated between ca. 1910 and 1960 and by 1965 was deserted. Florence and George Atkinson had been the longest-serving proprietors, working the resort between 1915 and 1949. (George died in 1923.) Architect Bruce Ferry acquired the constructing in 2006. He restored the façade and cleaned the inside, preserving many particulars which might be uncommon within the metropolis. Mazrim says the structurally sound constructing is unusually well-preserved, because of Bruce Ferry’s mild contact. Kidzeum acquired the constructing in 2013 when it bought the adjoining Schnepp and Barnes constructing to accommodate the Kidzeum.
The 18 rooms on two flooring embrace 16 dwelling/sleeping rooms, a kitchen, and two baths. The floorplan has not modified, and the rooms are like a time capsule. Mazrim notes that the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies had been laborious on historic constructions. By being mothballed, the Cliff Lodge did not endure an analogous destiny.
A number of the current options embrace Eighteen Nineties trim work, hand-painted fake graining on doorways, and a wide range of early to mid-Twentieth century wallpapers and paint finishes. There are messages written in pencil by former residents on among the partitions. Mazrim speculates that one message on a wall beneath the principle staircase was most likely written by a younger Jeanette Atkinson, daughter of Florence, which reads: “To the remainder of those who stay right here/Jeanette Atkinson and Mrs. Geo. Atkinson lived right here earlier than you probably did. See see see?”
Mazrim reviewed many elderly newspaper articles which give snippets into the lives of people that lived on the resort – a resident dying in his sleep, one other making an attempt suicide by slicing his wrists with a razor and one other killed by a practice on a railroad bridge and located within the Sangamon River. In 1916 costs had been introduced towards George and Florence Atkinson for retaining a home of sick fame. They had been discovered not responsible. In 1918 Florence Atkinson was charged with violating the anti-saloon legislation and being the proprietor of a disorderly home (later dismissed). Within the Nineteen Twenties, when she was in her 30s, Florence hosted the Democratic Girls’s Caucus. And she or he was one of many hostesses for the Republican Girls’s Membership of Sangamon County when she was 60.
Mazrim’s impression of Florence, based mostly on revealed newspaper articles and immersing himself within the constructing, is that she tried to assist girls of modest means and was unconcerned with sure typical proprieties. She was additionally strong-willed, stood as much as individuals and gained. On the age of 28, she was concerned in an altercation at her residence on South School Road. In line with the Sept. 12, 1908, Illinois State Journal, Florence Atkinson “routed and defeated two males who tried to invade her residence” to repossess some latest purchases. She confronted costs of assault and battery, disorderly conduct and resisting an officer.
Florence died in 1949, and the resort had extra transient occupancy in its later years. Lack of funding within the property served to protect not solely its unique options, but additionally many traces left behind by former occupants. These shall be highlighted within the exhibit and enhanced by artwork installations all through the areas.
