On the northeast corner of W. Southern Avenue and S. Priest Drive in Tempe, Arizona stands a home — an old home — known as the Petersen House. I have driven past that location dozens of times and each time I wondered what is it's story. Obviously, it was old but it also appeared that no one lived there.

I finally discovered the story of this residence, built in 1892 as the home of prominent local rancher, Niels Petersen and his wife Susanna. It is now managed by the Tempe Historical Museum and they were holding an open house on several days in December. Johnny and I decided to visit this historic landmark.

On entering via this elegant front door guests are immediately reminded that most of the furnishings are not original to the house but actual artifacts from the same period. We were also reminded not to touch them. 😇

We immediately encountered this stained glass window. These are not as common in modern homes but I recall several in my great-grandfather's home along the staircase's outer wall. My mom also loved them and she had a couple inside her retirement home in Salisbury, MD.

I love the period furniture but when I began processing this photo I spotted a problem I had not seen when I shot it. The picture was crooked! Well, Photoshop to the rescue. It has a new feature that allows me to point to something in the image and designate it as an object. I can then rotate the object so that it is level — and Photoshop changes the picture's perspective and fills in the wallpaper pattern in areas that had been previously covered. How could that program be so smart? I don't know but I love it.

Here is a closeup photo of the picture — a nice winter scene.

Some history — Niels Petersen immigrated from southwestern Denmark in 1870. A year later, he began ranching on 20 acres in the Tempe area. In 1878, he became a citizen and filed a homestead claim for 160 acres.

Petersen purchased more land over the years and by 1912 owned more than 2,000 acres. He found success growing alfalfa and raising cattle, horses, and mules. He, together with other local farmers, created a trench to the nearby Salt River by way of the Tempe Canal — thus delivering fresh water to his livestock.

I love the way the house was decorated for Christmas. The Tempe Historical Society decorated the house as it would have been decorated when the Petersens lived there. The little touches such as the greenery, berries, and bow are just fantastic.

I also enjoyed the touches such as this combination of umbrella stand and coat rack. Many modern folks have never seen such things.

And they also did a marvelous job decorating this Christmas tree. Note that all of the ornaments are handmade. The one modern touch is the use of electric lights — undoubtedly as a safety precaution.

In 1892, Niels Petersen married his second wife, Susanna Decker of South Montrose, Pennsylvania. About that time he commissioned local architect, James Creighton to design a two-story Queen Anne Victorian-style house, to be built on his ranch. And now we are standing in the result of that collaboration.

This appears to be an antique slide projector. Young folks may not know that people of this era did not have big-screen digital color televisions — heck, we didn't even have such things when I was young.

At some point, radio became the medium of choice. Not only could the family listen to music but also news and weather plus serials such as "The Lone Ranger". My family even had a console radio similar to this one when I was growing up.