Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Atchison, KS

From Kansas City we drove to Atchison, KS to see the only remaining  Santa Fe Depot, a part of the famous Achison, Topeka, and SantaFe  railroad.   The town made good use of the depot!   It houses the Chamber of Commerce, Visitor's Center and Museum.   It was a treasure trove of information.  For instance:   Senator Atchison was president of the USA for 24 hours, because Zachary Taylor would not be sworn in on a Sunday!   The composer of over 400 songs (i.e. Shake Rattle and Roll) was a hometown boy, and the famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart was born here!    Of course there were 22 various examples of rolling stock (train engine/cars) to look at.

We had lunch and then visited the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum.  Amelia was born in her grandparents house on July 24, 1897.   The house has been refurbished by The 100, a group of female fliers.   When we finished visiting her birthplace, we were told about a 25-room mansion, the Cray House.  

The Evah C.Cray Historical Home Museum and carriage house was built by W.W> Hetherington for his family in 1882.   He was the son of the founder of the Exchange National Bank of Atchison.   The home has two three-story towers that were inspird by Mrs. Hetherington's love of Scottish Castles.
The Hetheringtons and their descendants lived in the home for 80 years.

In 1978 Cloud Cray, Sr. bought the house for his wife Evah Cray, a preservationist and history enthusiast.   From 1978 until her death in 1992, Mrs Cray spent most of her love, passion and time finding and decorating the home with Victorian period furnishings and accessories.   Beautiful!

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