"Antique Annie"
Written: Jan 02 '01 (Updated Jan 02 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: odd strange tale, beautiful glassware
Cons: children should be extra careful in the museum
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| tinasamuels's Full Review: Chattanooga |
Sit down and let me tell you a little tale about Annie. Anna Safley Houston to some, Antique Annie to all.
Annie Houston was born in 1876 and little is known about her life. She married ten times but kept the name Houston in honor of her favorite husband. She did have a brief stint as an antique dealer in the 1920's but ended up losing it in the Great Depression. So what makes Annie so fascinating? Annie lived in a barn... a barn where she slept on the floor despite plenty of spacious area inside the barn. Why? Because hanging from the ceiling and every other conceivable spot EXCEPT the floor, was her collection of over 15,000 glass water pitchers. Annie Houston died in 1951 of malnutrition rather than sell a single piece out of her collection to pay for treatment. Ironic that glassware that was worth a mint, yet died in poverty rather than subject herself to letting go of the only company she kept. It is an art collection that she gave her life to preserve, and that the Houston Antique Museum keep active.
The collection is indeed so impressive that only 10% of the entire collection is shown at the museum, the rest being in the basement. There are literally millions of dollars of glass inside the walls of the museum. There is a videotape there about Houston, and her furniture, textiles, and ceramics. There is also a room where the glassware hangs from the ceiling, much like it did in that barn. This is an eerily vivid look into what must have been the madness in her.
Museum hours are M-Sat 9:30-4:30 and Sunday noon to 4:30 (Sunday only in summer) Closed New Years Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas. There is no food and no handicapped access. Tours are given throughout the museum.
There is a $5 admission charged, but I must say it is indeed a grand spectacle to see such a site. She was a remarkable woman with a strange passion for her glassware. You would never know that so many different varieties of a glass water pitcher existed.
Recommended:
Yes
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tinasamuels
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Member: Tina Samuels
Location: NW Georgia
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