The Ellwood House was built as a private home by barbed wire entrepreneur Isaac Ellwood in 1879. It is located on First Street in DeKalb, Illinois, United States, in DeKalb County. The Victorian style home, designed by George O. Garnsey, underwent remodeling in 1898-1899 and 1911.
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Head's up: No photography allowed in the home. Personally, that defeats the purpose of my visit, if I can't take photos of places I've visited in my life. But you can take photos of the outside of the house and get up close to the windows and take photos of the living room as you stand on the porch. There's also a visitor center, where photos ARE allowed and you can learn about Elwood's history.
Staff was pretty nice. They greeted me & told me where the restrooms are located & then they went back to work in their office. They just let me walk through the visitor center like a ghost walking through the halls. That's fine by me! I rather be a ghost than have staff drill me with questions like I have in other museums:
Where are you visiting from? Where do you live? How did you hear about us? Have you visited our website? Have you visited us before? Where are you going after the museum?
I'm JUST passing...
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This is a surprisingly interesting view into the lives of the well heeled and their servants from the end of the 19th century into the middle of the 20th. For only $8, you spend ~1 hr getting a guided tour of the original family mansion built by barb wire fortune and subsequently updated by the sale of more barb wire. Sounds odd, but it's definitely worth doing. The architecture and recovered restored furnishings of the original residence are worth the price of admission, even if it didn't include the stories shared by the docents and guides. Definitely worth it if you...
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The museum campus includes two elegant homes built by the Ellwood family. The older home, built in 1879, is fully furnished with the family's furniture and is available to be toured from March to November. This first weekend of December is always a special treat because the house is beautifully decorated for Christmas by local groups and businesses. Also, local musicians play Christmas music in the rotunda. Light refreshments are served in the visitor's center which has an excellent free exhibit about the family and their barbed wire business. Well...
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