when driving over the mountain, heading into jim thorpe, pa, there's one building that stands out on the mountain side and i thought to myself, i have to go see it. the asa packer mansion. it belonged railroad magnate, asa packer (duh!), and was built in 1861 and cost a whopping $14,000 to build. wow, right? it was willed to the bourough of mauch chunk by his daughter, mary packer cummings in 1912 along with all it's contents. it is now a museum and everything in the home was actually used by the family. (not just 'period pieces' like most meuseums. tours are offered (i didn't take one, decided to check out the surrounding property instead) but are only seasonal, so if you are making the trek up there to see it, make sure it's open before you venture!
so of course, the museum itself is interesting enough with it's beautiful grounds and when you sneak around the back of the building there are these interesting doors that reminded me of a hobit hole, leading to only who knows where (maybe the tour guide knows, but like i said, i didn't take the tour), i am guessing root cellars...when you are walking up to the front of the building there's a statue of a deer out front. nothing odd or unusual, statues of deer in people's front yards in the mountains don't surprise me, but this one was dressed for? what? independence day? i don't know. i tried removing the hat so i could take a picture wearing it, but whomever dressed the deer, made sure that hat wasn't coming off. so i settled for a picture on his back, not nearly as exciting.
my favorite thing about visiting the mansion, didn't really have anything to do with the mansion at all. there was small stone wall running alongside the yard so i made my way over to it, thinking it was maybe a family plot or something...it wasn't. it wasn't anything, lame, just a wall. but when i got to the wall, i could see an abandoned house next door tucked away in the woods. i have no idea who the house belonged to or why it had been abandoned, but i like abandoned things, so i took a look see. the closer i got, the more i was glad i decided to explore. up on the second floor, there was a broken out window and some(clever)one decided it was a good idea to turn it into a devil's face. i wish i knew who did it, i would totally shake his hand (with my one remaining hand) and congratulate him on being so clever. the roof was caving, so how he got up there is a mystery, but good for him. gave me a good chuckle. visit the packer mansion, but don't limit yourself to the tour, sometimes taking a self guided tour is fun too! on to my next adventure...
