Victorian Dress Museum a hidden local gem | News, Sports, Jobs

Sue Sitter/PCT Marilyn Niewoehner stands next to a reproduction of an 1860s hoop dress inside the Rugbys Victorian Dress Museum.

A hidden gem for fashion history buffs lies inside a nationally recognized historic building in Rugby.

Rugby’s Victorian Dress Museum, located at 312 2nd Ave. Southwest, features clothing designs from the 1860s to 1907 inside the former St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

“It is one of three buildings in Rugby listed on the National Register of Historic Places,” said museum owner Marilyn Niewoehner. “We have the courthouse, the depot, and the Episcopal Church building.”

The church has earned a place on the register with its unique construction.

Constructed from fieldstone, the building has windows donated by Holy Trinity Episcopal Parish in New York.

The windows were assembled from stained glass salvaged from the old parish church, which had been demolished around 1903. This church had been dedicated in 1865, just three days after the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln.

Locals George Ward and a Mr Warren put the pieces together to make windows for the new church in Rugby, according to the story collected by Niewoehner’s husband, Dale.

Work was completed on St Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1905. Dignitaries from Rugby and the Episcopal Church dedicated the building on January 25 that year, with temperatures dipping to -25. The construction costs for the building amounted to $2,000.

In the 1990s, the Niewoehners purchased the church, long after the congregation had dissolved.

Marilyn Niewoehner transformed the building into a place to display a small number of Victorian dresses she had received over the years from local families, and several of her own designs.

The museum takes visitors on a journey through unique pieces where pleats, ribbons, swirls and materials of all kinds rub shoulders.

“These clothes are reproductions of women’s clothes from 1860 to 1907”, she says. “I’ve done them all.

“I tried to make them as historically correct as possible, using wool, cotton, linen and silk”, she explained. “I succeeded to some extent. Some of them I cheat and use polyester, rayon and acetate, just because I choose not to get my hands on silk all the time. I use whatever materials I can get my hands on.

“But,” she added, “There are many historically correct model companies out there, so I started at that point with a model and tweaked the model to look like a picture in a book or a picture in a photograph.

“I learned to build clothes in a historical way”, she says.

“And the Prairie Village Museum is a great resource for looking at real clothing and how it’s constructed.” she added, noting that the Prairie Village Museum is displaying a dress that once belonged to Queen Victoria of England.

“At the same time, you can’t look inside the clothes. You cannot manipulate the clothes to see how they are made. So I have a lot of resources for this kind of thing, “ she says.

Dresses representing 1870s fashion have bustles, which are pads and gathers of fabric in the back. “I have the foundations of agitation” said Niewoehner.

“I have dresses from the 1860s, with a hoop petticoat, a false petticoat and an extra garment”, she added.

“Different types of clothes have different characteristics”, she added. “Most clothes are two-piece because the weight of the skirt is too heavy for a seam at the waist to hold. So most clothes are two-piece. There is a skirt and a bodice that s fits over the skirt.

Showing off a hoop dress at the entrance to the museum, Niewoehner said: “It’s an 1860s skirt and bodice. This blouse is interesting because you can remove the lapel part of the sleeve, which is fun.

Walking over to another wide-skirted dress, she said, “You can understand that if you have a 200-inch garment around the bottom and you pick it up and put it around your waist, it’s going to deflate all over. So they laid box pleats on top of each other to get rid of all the fullness and kept the bodice flat at the waist. A very nice look.

“A lot of clothes have been awarded in historical costume contests”, she added. “And that I share to talk about credibility.

“I really had fun making them” she added. “It’s a challenge to make something that has more pieces than current clothes, so when you’re done you have a masterpiece. I’m proud of that.

Niewoehner predicted a return to more formal and detailed dress styles in the future.

“Fashion comes full circle” she says. “We are going to start dressing again in a beautiful style. It always comes back. We are in crisis right now. This will change. We will dress beautifully again. In history, there are crises. You dress beautifully, then things go awry. At the moment we are very relaxed. We are in wet clothes. We will eventually be non-casual again. It always happens.

The Victorian Dress Museum exhibits not only dresses, but also the multiple layers of underwear put in front of them.

Niewoehner brought the foundations to the Prairie Village Museum in 2020 to show visitors the elaborate steps women took to dress in the late 1800s.

She plans to display the same clothes at the North Dakota State Fair next year.

Near the underwear shelves, a mannequin displays an 1890s bathing suit, which covers most of the arms and legs, reflecting an era that emphasized sartorial modesty.

Other items include ceremonial clothes and a piece resembling a black brocade dress worn by Medora des Mores, the woman after whom the city of Medora is named.

Two garments have high sheepskin sleeves.

“These were only fashionable from 1895 to 1996”, said Niewoehner.

“Every time we wear a blouse with puff sleeves, it comes from this trend”, she added.

Switching to a sewn blouse to represent the style of the early 1900s, she said: “What is remarkable about it is the kangaroo pocket. This one dates from 1907.

“I used this photo of the Toftsrud house when Bertha Toftsrud lived there as an example”, she added, pointing to a photo of a woman standing on a porch in a skimpy white dress.

The walls of the museum house old photos of Americans from various walks of life. Early 1900s schoolteachers smile as a group with their photos. Others strike royal poses in portraits.

One, a portrait of Amelia Bloomer, sits behind a pair of women’s pants she made famous.

Niewoehner also exhibits several reproduction wedding dresses, including one with puffed lamb sleeves.

“It’s from 1905,” she added, turning to another dress with a puffy bodice and thin sleeves. “It’s made of silk.”

The dress features a bodice with a detachable crocheted collar called dicky, ribbons and embroidery.

I saw a lady in this photo wearing this dress, so I sewed it,’ she added, pointing to a photo of a woman from over a century ago wearing the wedding dress .

“It’s my favorite dress. It was a challenge,” she added. “I hired a lady to crochet for me. But it was a challenge. »

Niewoehner also exhibits five antique dresses, all over 100 years old, in the museum. Local families donated the dresses.

Even recreations of Victorian-era housecoats pay close attention to detail, with bright floral designs on cotton fabric and convenient pleats to allow freedom of movement.

The visit to the museum ends with an opportunity to relax in the church’s former sacristy, converted into a living room furnished with comfortable armchairs and antique furniture. Niewoehner offers visitors to the circuit chocolate, cookie bars and coffee. Refreshments are free with the tour.

“If it’s after 5 p.m., I’ll offer a glass of wine” she added.

The living room opens onto a courtyard, where Niewoehner plans to plant flowers next year.

“I don’t get many tourists here at my museum, but people who come here really want to be here,” she says of the hidden local gem. “And they love it.”

Tours are available for an admission fee of $5 per person. To arrange a visit, call Niewoehner at 681-1776.

The museum closes for the season “when the cold weather begins,” she says.