You won’t find the Town of Stevenson on any map, but the creation of Steve and Carol Stevenson truly is magical place in the hills of Richland County.
The couple has created a museum, which looks like a small Midwestern town, in a large building on their farm estate. You can browse through the goods at Thompson’s Mercantile, which is a recreation of a Richland Center general store. Included among the artifacts in the store is a black purse once owned by actress Elizabeth Taylor.
You’ll find a Lucille Ball look-alike staffing the switchboard at the Town of Stevenson post office and telephone company. Her red wig came from the Palace Theatre in Jamestown, N.Y., Lucy’s birthplace. Some of the phones are from the home of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who once lived in the area.
Go upstairs and you’ll see the classic “Room for Rent 50 Cents.” The Town of Stevenson Fire Department includes antique fire-fighting equipment on the lower level and a firehouse on the upper level that features a table and other items from the Mount Horeb Fire Department.
Antique vehicles ranging from cars to fire engines to a 1923 “snowmobile,” farm equipment, a wonderful model railroad layout and hundreds of other items are laid out in artistic arrangements throughout the museum.
Carol also has vintage clothing collection that includes hundreds of garments, including a robe from the Emperor of China. She has those displayed on a dry cleaners moveable rack.
“I’ve enjoyed creating my own little worlds since I was a child,” Carol said in a recent interview. “Steve has been a wonderful partner in this creation.”
Steve serves as the Town of Stevenson mayor, police chief, fire chief, postmaster and judge. That leaves “streets and sanitation” for Carol.
“It means I clean up and take the dogs out,” Carol said while two Scotties sat near her.
The couple, which owns an industrial flooring company in Carol Stream, Ill., has been collecting things for all their 35 years together. They bought the farm in Richland County in 1989 and started developing the museum a few years later.
Steve still goes back to Illinois every other week to do business, while Carol remains in the Town of Stevenson. A self-professed “detail person,” Carol, who used to own an interior plant design business, puts great time and effort into collecting the museum pieces, arranging them in the town layout and even making mannequins, complete with porcelain faces, who inhabit the museum.
When he’s not working in Illinois, Steve has done much of the construction work and restoration work on the museum. He made tables, shelving and other things in the museum by cutting and milling old utility poles. “We’ve really worked together on almost everything in here,” Steve said. “We have our individual skills and meld them.”
The Town of Stevenson also is a place of love and humor. Many of the spots in the town are named after loved-ones or friends. So, you’ll find a 1939 Lincoln Zephyr, in mint condition, parked at a Red Crown gas station, similar to the one Steve’s father owned.
A room upstairs is devoted to Carol’s father, Leo, and the radio/sound business he was involved in. In the implement shop is a John Deere Lindemann crawler tractor. The Stevensons actually tracked down Lindemann later in his life and became friends.
The Ford dealership is called Jimmy Walker Ford, named after a fellow collector and friend who died at 41.
There also are clever, humorous details. For instance, sitting in a Ford Model A is a blonde gangster moll cradling a Tommy gun. Outside the “Room For Rent 50 cents” sits what Steve calls ‘the Town of Stevenson hooker.”
In the town barbershop, which also offers a bath, Jessie Ventura lounges among the suds with a cigar in his jaws. A pickup truck with Ocooch Mountain Humane Society written on it includes all kinds of stuffed animals.
The Stevensons have collected their antiques all over the country, online, from friends and family and have received donations from people who liked the idea of the museum.
“Collecting is the real fun,” says Steve, with Carol nodding in affirmation.
Carol said the creativity of designing the museum, making the mannequins and dolls and arranging displays has become her “passion.” She draws on many of the same skills that helped her build her interior plant design business, which designed and installed atriums and displays in banks and corporate headquarters around the country.
Since the couple moved to Wisconsin, Carol also has been very involved in volunteer work -- ranging from the Richland Center Chamber of Commerce, to a restoration project for a historic railroad depot in that town and most recently the humane society, which is plugged on that, antique pickup truck.
In fact, any revenue from tours of the Town of Stevenson goes to the humane society. “We’re working to build a humane shelter for displaced animals,” Carol explained.
The museum is not open to the general public, but tours can be arranged for senior citizens groups, collectors’ groups and other community group tours. The Stevensons also have hosted fundraisers in their town.
The couple has created a museum, which looks like a small Midwestern town, in a large building on their farm estate. You can browse through the goods at Thompson’s Mercantile, which is a recreation of a Richland Center general store. Included among the artifacts in the store is a black purse once owned by actress Elizabeth Taylor.
You’ll find a Lucille Ball look-alike staffing the switchboard at the Town of Stevenson post office and telephone company. Her red wig came from the Palace Theatre in Jamestown, N.Y., Lucy’s birthplace. Some of the phones are from the home of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who once lived in the area.
Go upstairs and you’ll see the classic “Room for Rent 50 Cents.” The Town of Stevenson Fire Department includes antique fire-fighting equipment on the lower level and a firehouse on the upper level that features a table and other items from the Mount Horeb Fire Department.
Antique vehicles ranging from cars to fire engines to a 1923 “snowmobile,” farm equipment, a wonderful model railroad layout and hundreds of other items are laid out in artistic arrangements throughout the museum.
Carol also has vintage clothing collection that includes hundreds of garments, including a robe from the Emperor of China. She has those displayed on a dry cleaners moveable rack.
“I’ve enjoyed creating my own little worlds since I was a child,” Carol said in a recent interview. “Steve has been a wonderful partner in this creation.”
Steve serves as the Town of Stevenson mayor, police chief, fire chief, postmaster and judge. That leaves “streets and sanitation” for Carol.
“It means I clean up and take the dogs out,” Carol said while two Scotties sat near her.
The couple, which owns an industrial flooring company in Carol Stream, Ill., has been collecting things for all their 35 years together. They bought the farm in Richland County in 1989 and started developing the museum a few years later.
Steve still goes back to Illinois every other week to do business, while Carol remains in the Town of Stevenson. A self-professed “detail person,” Carol, who used to own an interior plant design business, puts great time and effort into collecting the museum pieces, arranging them in the town layout and even making mannequins, complete with porcelain faces, who inhabit the museum.
When he’s not working in Illinois, Steve has done much of the construction work and restoration work on the museum. He made tables, shelving and other things in the museum by cutting and milling old utility poles. “We’ve really worked together on almost everything in here,” Steve said. “We have our individual skills and meld them.”
The Town of Stevenson also is a place of love and humor. Many of the spots in the town are named after loved-ones or friends. So, you’ll find a 1939 Lincoln Zephyr, in mint condition, parked at a Red Crown gas station, similar to the one Steve’s father owned.
A room upstairs is devoted to Carol’s father, Leo, and the radio/sound business he was involved in. In the implement shop is a John Deere Lindemann crawler tractor. The Stevensons actually tracked down Lindemann later in his life and became friends.
The Ford dealership is called Jimmy Walker Ford, named after a fellow collector and friend who died at 41.
There also are clever, humorous details. For instance, sitting in a Ford Model A is a blonde gangster moll cradling a Tommy gun. Outside the “Room For Rent 50 cents” sits what Steve calls ‘the Town of Stevenson hooker.”
In the town barbershop, which also offers a bath, Jessie Ventura lounges among the suds with a cigar in his jaws. A pickup truck with Ocooch Mountain Humane Society written on it includes all kinds of stuffed animals.
The Stevensons have collected their antiques all over the country, online, from friends and family and have received donations from people who liked the idea of the museum.
“Collecting is the real fun,” says Steve, with Carol nodding in affirmation.
Carol said the creativity of designing the museum, making the mannequins and dolls and arranging displays has become her “passion.” She draws on many of the same skills that helped her build her interior plant design business, which designed and installed atriums and displays in banks and corporate headquarters around the country.
Since the couple moved to Wisconsin, Carol also has been very involved in volunteer work -- ranging from the Richland Center Chamber of Commerce, to a restoration project for a historic railroad depot in that town and most recently the humane society, which is plugged on that, antique pickup truck.
In fact, any revenue from tours of the Town of Stevenson goes to the humane society. “We’re working to build a humane shelter for displaced animals,” Carol explained.
The museum is not open to the general public, but tours can be arranged for senior citizens groups, collectors’ groups and other community group tours. The Stevensons also have hosted fundraisers in their town.
Gregg Hoffmann is a veteran journalist, author and publisher of Midwest Diamond Report and Old School Collectibles Web sites. Hoffmann, a retired senior lecturer in journalism at UWM, writes The State Sports Buzz and Beyond Milwaukee on a monthly basis for OMC.
