Select “tour” in the tags on my site and you’ll get several results.
I like a good tour, whether it be a self-led somber walk through the 9/11 Memorial in New York or a docent reviewing the lavish accommodations at the Clayton House in Pittsburgh.
We have a friend in Italy named Lorenzo, so when we made our first trip to Cazenovia, New York and saw the sign for, “Lorenzo State Historic Site,” we had to investigate.
Our July trip gave us the perfect blue sky day to tour. We were the only guests of genuine and friendly Charlie, who’s been giving Lorenzo tours for twenty years. A retired teacher, he taught us well about the lifestyle of John Lincklaen and his family in their Federal style home. At the bargain of five-dollars per adult, Charlie gave a tour worthy of five times that amount.
Lorenzo House was Built to Last
A masonry structure, Lincklaen built the spacious house in 1807 after his wood frame home burnt down. It’s solid and you feel the weight of it under your feet as you walk the various floors.
Unlike touring Henry Clay Frick’s Clayton mansion, photography is permitted inside Lorenzo. We took full advantage of this openness and wound up with some great shots to prompt our memories.
Walk the Grounds of Lorenzo House
Don’t skip the carriage house, the gardens—also in the balanced Federal style—or the gift shop. While gift shops often seem to extort you, Lorenzo House has an assortment of period-related items available at fair prices. If you’re lucky, you get to meet docent Liz and visit with her a bit. The shop is a pleasant way to wind up the day and support the New York Parks by leaving a few dollars behind. My favorite find was a hurdy-gurdy for my five-year-old great niece. My niece found the toy captivating!
At the end of the tour, there exhibit rooms are setup that you can peruse at your own pace. One particular sign struck us … I’ll leave you with this bit of instruction…
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Read: Beautiful Finger Lakes
Hi Rosemary,
This was just an amazing tour for me. I used to live nearby there in Ithaca so it captured my attention. What a beautiful home! I fell in love with that hunky ice chest….I could just imagine making that into something useable. I am in love with this stuff. Thanks so much.
-Donna
How fun, Donna, that the first post of mine you read is about a place you’ve been to! Ithaca is also a lovely place if a heck of a lot larger than Cazenovia. The Lorenzo tour is sure well done. I fell in love with the book press!
I love seeing all these artifacts of our history preserved!!
It was such a nice house to tour, GP. Coming up Sunday is a tour of several notable Pittsburgh buildings. Glad they are still here!
I love the “Dinner is Served: Table Signals.” Some are still in use today. I don’t drink so when I attend a dinner party I always turn my wine glass upside down. And I think lying your fork across your plate is still the signal the you’re finished eating.
I do that turnover with my coffee cup at dinner events, too, Jeannette. I learned to lay the fork and knife diagonally across the plate on my first European trip. Works there, works randomly at home. 🙂
This looks like a great place to visit. I am a big fan of tours too. I get so much more information about the places I visit this way. Thanks for bringing this tour to my attention.
When you get to go north, Sabrina, I hope you get to check out this house. I think even kiddos would enjoy it!
Tours are always so much better when photos are allowed. As for the dinner service sign, that’s pretty impressive. It reminds me of when I went from busser to server. At first I would always ask if a guest wanted a refill until one of the dining room managers said not to do that.
You were a better server than I was, Jeri! Tours are the best. Can’t wait to take another…hm, where shall it be?
How completely civilized! Laugh! Though we didn’t practice the etiquette rules at home for every-day dinner, we were taught them for dining out! I doubt today if most servers even are aware that they exist!
There were certain dining rules that were so over our heads that I didn’t learn them until college! Yes, I doubt if the servers would know these things except in the poshest of places (where I’ll never go!).
That’s very interesting Rose. The dinner etiquette rules are still used today, or at least they were taught to me and I’m not that old. Lol
Susan, you had a much more…formal upbringing than I did! We had polite dining rules, of course, but nothing quite so intense as that poster. How often as kids, we heard: Mabel, Mabel, if you’re able, get your elbows off the table.”
I LOVE the dinner instructions. It was really quite brilliant.
Dare you to try this at home, Jackie.
I was looking at that wooden structure with the door on it and trying to figure out what it was. Having no real perspective on size my first though was an outhouse. Then I clicked and found out it was a dog carrier. Looks great but I don’t think I’d want to carry a dog too far in that because it looks a bit heavy.
Truly, Ken! We thought the same thing when we finally spotted the little tag on it. What if they were carrying a St Bernard in that thing?