Candles shine at Hunter-Dawson one weekend every year
by Paul Newton | pnewton@ruralmissouri.coop
Guests begin filing into the stately, old home shortly after the sun dips below the horizon in southeast Missouri. The first thing they notice isn’t the flicker of candlelight; it’s the aroma in the air. For one weekend every December, the 1860 home at Hunter-Dawson State Historic Site glows the way it did more than a century and a half ago.
“One of the first things that hits you is the smells — the fresh greenery and the live Christmas trees mixed with the oil lamps,” says Hunter-Dawson Site Administrator Vicki Jackson. “You can’t replicate that smell. It’s nostalgic.”
For more than four decades, visitors have flocked to New Madrid on the second weekend of December to experience the Candlelight Open House inside the 15-room, antebellum home William and Amanda Hunter built. The event draws hundreds of visitors to southeast Missouri each year and has become a holiday tradition for many families.
The Hunters farmed about 400 acres in the area and ran a store and sawmill in town. William passed away before the house was finished and Amanda moved in with her seven surviving children. Their youngest daughter, Ella, inherited the house after Amanda’s death and married William Dawson, giving the home its current name. The family lived there for nearly a century, until 1958.
“Our claim to fame and what makes us so unique is that 85% of the furniture is original,” Vicki says. “It’s like a time capsule. You’re not just walking through the house; you’re walking through Amanda’s house and Amanda’s rooms and furniture.”
The Candlelight Open House is an all-hands-on-deck celebration for Vicki and her fellow Missouri State Parks employees. Staff from other parks and sites help decorate the 165-year-old home with decor fitting the time period. They use holly and magnolia gathered from the home’s yard and 1,300 yards of pine roping on the three real Christmas trees on display.
Once the decorating is done and the day arrives, they light candles and oil lamps throughout the rooms and parlors of the home. Those two December days are the only ones the Hunter-Dawson home is illuminated this way. “You can’t light an oil lamp and walk away,” says Vicki. “This is the only event we have where somebody stays in each room.”
As guests enter the old home, they’re greeted by plenty of smiling faces wearing period clothing. “I dress up; everyone dresses up,” Vicki says. “Even our maintenance person will dress up that weekend.”
As guests explore from room to room, the atmosphere feels less like a museum tour and more like a friendly homecoming. The house is open for three hours each night and visitors go at their own pace. Staff welcome guests and share the historical significance or holiday traditions of each room.
“The family parlor has a more traditional, Victorian tree, so if I’m in there I’ll point out the handmade ornaments or the peanuts that have been wrapped in tissue paper hanging on the tree as an ornament,” Vicki says. “I just try to give them a background of what Christmas in 1860 would have been like and if it’s their first time in the house ever, we might give them a little more background on the family.”
Vicki says she loves seeing new faces at Hunter-Dawson every year, but it’s the families that come back year after year that make the event memorable. “There’s families that have made this a holiday tradition, a family tradition for them every year,” she says. “We have one father-daughter duo that started coming nearly at the beginning when she was a little baby and have been doing it for 40 years or so now.”
The candlelight tours are the only time the home is open to the public in the evening and tours are free of charge. Daytime tours are offered year-round for a small fee. Vicki says the two experiences are definitely night and day. The house has a different feel while it’s so full and without natural light pouring in.
“For candlelight tours, when we’ve got that many people in the house — it’s not something we normally get,” she says. “You’ve got people in there laughing and talking and it just feels warm and fun. The house feels alive.”
The Candlelight Open House at Hunter-Dawson State Historic Site will take place on Dec. 12-13 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. For more information, call 573-748-5340 or visit www.mostateparks.com.