Victorian society recalls 'gentler time'

According to a family legend, Lisa Lewis said, one of her ancestors worked as a parlor maid for the wealthy Kirby family during the Civil War era. Her name was Margaret, and one day she was shaking a dust cloth out the window of her employer’s mansion in Wilkes-Barre.

Young Anselm Bosch, an immigrant from Baden, Germany, was walking down the street and noticed her. “Something about her caught his fancy,” Lewis said. “He turned to his friend and said, ‘There’s the girl I’m going to marry.’

“Of course, there was none of this whistling or ‘Hey, cutie’ the way you might hear today. In those days, he would have ‘inquired of her.’ He would have asked about her and asked to be introduced.”

Lewis, a 44-year-old mother of four from West Pittston, relishes that story, not only because it tells how the grandparents of her great-grandfather got together, but because it reflects the decorum that guided polite society during her favorite historical time period — the Victorian era.

“Back then, you didn’t want to disgrace yourself or your family,” Lewis said last week during a meeting of the Victorian Friendship Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Lewis founded the society to bring together other fans of what she calls “a kinder, gentler time.”

Several of the two dozen guests who attended the recent gathering at the Frederick Stegmaier Mansion in downtown Wilkes-Barre wore Victorian or Edwardian clothing, which added to the feeling that the clock had turned back several decades.

Margaret Messana of Clarks Summit, for one, wore a lacy shirtwaist and carried a pink parasol.

Lesley Bommer of White Haven appeared to be dressed appropriately for first-class passage on The Titanic. “You look like Lady Astor,” Lewis told her admiringly.

Jennifer Ochman from West Pittston looked as if she had stepped out of the sound set for “Gone With the Wind” in a plaid dress with a hoop skirt that she made herself. She said she plans to wear the dress – with a different top – during a “Civil War Ball” set for April 18 at The Century Club in Scranton. (See www.ScrantonCivilWarDay.com or call 655-6340 for info.)

Lewis’ husband, Bob, wore a vintage suit and Lewis herself, who discussed the fancy valentine greetings of the Victorian era during the meeting, wore a dark two-piece dress with a matching hat that had been a bridal ensemble from the late 19th century.

“Many brides didn’t wear white in those days. They wore their best dress, which they would have worn again and again,” she explained.

In other aspects of Victorian life, she said, men and women developed subtle methods of communication, such as a lady deliberately dropping a hanky to give a gentleman an excuse to approach her.

Lewis gave her talk in the library of the Frederick Stegmaier Mansion, a room filled with such elaborate Victorian touches as a painting of “The Birth of Venus” on the transom above the door.

“Just look at this house. Number one is the d�cor,” Carol Ashton of Wilkes-Barre said, explaining why she finds the Victorian era fascinating. “Just look at the opulence (owner) Joe (Matteo) has restored.”

“I love the lace blouses and sleeves. I think they’re gorgeous,” Shirley Uhl of Newfoundland said.

Lewis said she’s been a fan of the late 19th and early 20th centuries since her girlhood, when she read such classics as “Little Women” and “Anne of Green Gables.” She enjoyed playing dress-up back then, and admits with a chuckle, “I still do.”

“The Victoriana Lady” gives members of the Victorian Friendship Society monthly opportunities to admire Victorian clothes, decor and architecture.

Upcoming Society events include an afternoon tea and tour of the Shearer Elegance Bed & Breakfast in Linfield on March 28, a tour of a tea room and antique shops in Gettysburg on April 25 and another visit to the Stegmaier Mansion on May 18. On June 6, they’ll attend a Victoria tea and fashion show at the Lands at Hillside Farms in Trucksville.

“It will be so nice to be outside and have a breath of spring,” Bommer said, looking ahead to the June tea.

For now, Lewis said, revisiting the Victorian era is “a way to escape the craziness of the world.”

She is available to give talks about Victorian times or stage a Victorian fashion show to any interested group.