Izabela Pieniadz is overseeing a busy schedule of events and significant restoration work at the Ellwood House mansion as she gets ready to celebrate one year as Executive Director.  Pieniadz came to the museum from the Art Institute of Chicago.  A graduate of the School of the Art Institute,  she holds a Master’s degree in Arts Administration and is completing a Master’s degree in Historic Preservation.  Her goal is to continue to grow event outreach and administer a $1.3 million capital campaign fund raised from 2018-2021 to help preserve the Ellwood mansion built in 1879 by barbed wire baron Isaac Ellwood.

 

Pieniadz said attendance at the museum campus is strong.  Almost 2,500 people visited the mansion over the past year.  They hosted 183 tours along with hosting special events.  Their venues include the 1879 Ellwood House and the neighboring Nehring-Ellwood mansion built at the turn of the 20^th century.  Pieniadz said their programs include the Arts Action series featuring local artisans, a Local Lore series highlighting local history, Evening at the Ellcourt which features live music, and their major fundraiser, Wine on the Terrace.  Another highlight is the annual mansion  Christmas decoration exhibit which will open soon. 

 

Managing through increasing material costs has been a challenge according to Pieniadz but progress is being made at stabilizing and restoring the Ellwood House mansion.  She said their “1879 Project” is divided into seven parts of specific improvements.  Currently they have undertaken repair and restoration of windows, installing ultra-violet light protection on windows, and stabilizing steel doors going into the mansion’s living room.  Select masonry repairs were done that included matching tuckpointing to original coloring from the mansion’s original construction.  There have also been significant electrical upgrades by replacing outdated knob and tube wiring.  Pieniadz said they opted to run new wiring by taking up flooring rather than going through walls that might not be able to be restored properly.

Pieniadz said the Ellwood House Museum is always looking for new members and volunteers.  Their website is www.Ellwoodhouse.org.

November 6, 1861 – James Naismith, the inventor of the sport of basketball, is born in Almonte, Ontario, Canada.  He wrote the basketball rulebook in 1891, founded the University of Kansas basketball program, and lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic sport in 1936 and creation  of the NCAA tournament in 1939. 

 

November 7, 1867 – Marie Curie, the scientist who discovered radium and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, is born in Warsaw, Poland.

 

November 8, 1656 – Astronomer and mathematician Edmund Halley is born in London.  He discovers his namesake comet in 1682 and calculates its next appearance in 1758.  Reappearing about every 76 years, it should next be visible in 2061.

 

November 10, 1483 – German Theologian and Reformation founder Martin Luther is born.  He begins a separate religious movement after posting his 95 Thesis originally meant to reform the Catholic Church.

November 8, 1895 – X-rays are discovered by William Roentgen at the University of Würzburg in Germany.

 

November 9, 1965 – At 5:16 PM, the Great Blackout of the Northeast began caused by a circuit breaker malfunction at a power plant on the Niagara River. The blackout affects more than 30-million people living along the East Coast and Canada.

 

November 10, 1871 – Explorer Henry M. Stanley found missionary David Livingston at Ujiri, Africa.  Livingston had been missing for two years.

 

November 11, 1918 – The Armistice ending World War I takes affect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in Germany.  Before it ends, the global conflict involves more than 70 million military personnel and leads to 8.5 million combatant deaths and is blamed for 13 million civilian deaths.