John Harris Mansion!

John and I just got back from visiting our mansion... Just kidding, but seriously, the John Harris Mansion was amazing! The lady was so nice. When I called the place yesterday to ask if they'd be able to give a tour after their scheduled hours she told me to call back a little later when the director would be in. When I did I told them that my husband's name was John Harris and we were very interested in seeing the mansion, though we don't know if he's an actual descendent. She told me she was going to be there until six today, so we could drop by after John got out of class. I was very excited!

We had a little trouble finding our way there at first but once we got there it was awesome! We were very disappointed to hear that they did not have any pictures of either John Harris Sr. or John Harris Jr. (John Jr. is the one who actually built the house in 1766 and founded Harrisburg). They said that most of the house has gone through many renovations since the Harris' built it and it is a lot different now. This would be why it's actually called the "John Harris - Simon Cameron Mansion." Simon Cameron owned it for a long time and is actually the one who made most of the renovations in 1863. He was also Lincoln's Secretary of War. There were a few things that they knew for sure belonged to John Harris. There was a grandfather clock and two chairs.

John thought it was strange but interesting when the lady said "...your potential eighth great-grandfather." John Harris Jr. is actually buried across the street on a plot of land that was supposedly where he had a very frightening experience where some indians tied him to a tree and tried to burn him alive. There was a painting of this in one of the rooms but the lady said that it was incorrect because there were some buildings in the background that would not have been there during that time period, still leaving us without a solid picture of what he may have looked like (he actually looked a little like George Washington in the picture). The rooms were amazing. There was a bathroom where all the walls were made of tile and chrome! There were some rooms that had wood flooring from the 1800's. She showed us a room of new things that were recently donated so they didn't have the descriptions yet but this room was full of music players and instruments from the late 1800's and early 1900's. She even played some for us which was awesome! How many times can you go into a museum and have someone actually play the thing that's on display? There was an 1840's "record player" that was truly amazing. The "needle" was a long metal thing that went across half of the "record" and then the "record" was a silver or brass plate that had holes punched into it so when it ran over the "needle" it played a song. This was probably the room that we loved the most.

Before we left the lady told us that she would get us a map of Harrisburg from the time when it was first founded. She also grabed a couple of other things for us to take which was great. Not only that, but John gave her one of his business cards and she said she would e-mail him some geneology to see if we could figure out if there's any relation. She was very nice and helpful and it's interesting to think that there could be some relation.

After we left the mansion we stopped at an Italian restaurant called Bricco. This place was pretty high end and we felt a little out of place at first in our jeans. We ordered a pizza to share and this was the best pizza I have ever had in my life! This is no exaggeration. It had sausage, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and probably some other things and it tasted so good. We topped it off with a dessert that was almost like an elephant ear but more gourmet. We loved it!