Victoria Mansion Ready for Christmas

Portland, Maine - With the official start of its annual Christmas holiday tours only a week away, Victoria Mansion, a National Historic Landmark in Portland, is dressed for the season. Throughout the month of November, nearly a dozen local florists and designers volunteered their time and materials to embellish the Mansion's dazzling interiors, more than ninety percent intact from 1860, with festive holiday décor based on this year's theme, Joy to the World.

Each year, the Mansion rings in the holiday season by opening its doors the day after Thanksgiving. For many Mainers, experiencing the Mansion bedecked for Christmas has become a holiday tradition without which the season would not be complete.

"We're thrilled that we've become so known for our Christmas program," says the Mansion's Marketing and Events Coordinator, Greg Sundik. "Last year I met a woman who has come to visit the Mansion on Christmas Eve twenty-three years in a row. It's wonderful that we've become such an important part of people's celebrations."

During its Christmas season, the Mansion expects to welcome nearly 10,000 visitors, most of them from Maine. "Our summer guests are largely visitors to the state, but our Christmas season is really a way for us to welcome the local community," says Executive Director Tom Johnson. "That's why we go out of our way to be more accessible to people during this time of year. For the first time this year, we'll be offering evening hours every Monday during the season to attract people who might otherwise not be able to visit us."

Christmas at Victoria Mansion begins November 29 and runs through January 5, open daily except for Christmas and New Year's Day. Daily hours are from 11:00am to 4:30pm, with extended Monday hours from 11:00am to 7:30pm. Admission is $15.00 for the general public, $13.50 for seniors and AAA members, $7.00 for college students (with ID), $5.00 for children age 6-17, and free for children under 6. Victoria Mansion members are always free.

The Mansion will also be open December 6 in conjunction with the city's First Friday Art Walk, hosting a free exhibit in the Carriage House: Modern Tintype Portraits by Portland artist Troy R. Bennett. The exhibit features recent portraits by Bennett using the historic wet-plate collodion process invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851 and popular through the 1880s. The Mansion will also be open that night for a deeply discounted admission of $5.00.

Constructed between 1858 and 1860, Victoria Mansion is one of America's finest surviving examples of architecture and interior design from the mid-nineteenth century.  Its opulent original interiors and furnishings by renowned designer Gustave Herter remain more than ninety percent intact.  The house has been open to the public as a non-profit museum since 1941 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

Victoria Mansion is very grateful to the following sponsors of Christmas at Victoria Mansion: Down East Magazine, 98.9 WCLZ, WPFO FOX 23, Bangor Savings Bank, Verrill Dana LLP, WEX, and Mister Sparky.