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JAMESTOWN – A historical Jamestown home is celebrating the holiday season with a Christmas Tree display that features 1,000s of unique decorations.
The Marvin House is opening their doors for “An Old Fashioned Christmas” after partnering with local architect Marlin Casker, as President of the Marvin House women’s club Rosemary Lombardo explains.
“Well we have 13 trees all together, we have one man Marlin Casker, a retired architect who was responsible for all this beautiful decoration,” explained Lombardo. “He’s donated many many valuable ornaments from around the world and we wanted people to know who we are.”
After traveling the world to build his collection of Christmas ornaments, Casker donated his sets to the house. He says he is excited to share one of his passions with the community.
“A friend of mine and I collected ornaments for about 30 years starting in the early 80s and up through the end of the first decade of the century,” Casker furthered. “They were imported from Egypt, or Mexico or wherever, Japan, China, it came from all over the place.”
Each tree is unique in their own way, however one in particular stands out the most.
“That one is interesting because it carries a cultural attitude. Egypt of course is a Islamic country, and early in Islamic history there was a prohibition against the figure that is human figure, egyptian artisans got awfully good at designing things with just color and pattern and that went on for centuries even though these ornaments are new that history that idea is carried through into the present day and so those ornaments have no human figures just pattern and color.”
Photos and video of the exhibit doesn’t do it justice, which is why Lombardo is inviting everyone to come inside and see the trees for themselves.
“We have tours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, we have tours that will be holding during the week here, and in the evenings from now until Christmas, all they have to do is call the Marvin house (716) 488-6206, or get on our website, Marvinhouse@cync.net, and they’ll get all the information and the time,” said Lombardo.
Since 1951, the Marvin House has served as the city’s mother house of all the women’s clubs after owner Elizabeth Marvin passed away, leaving the home in her will.
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