User:Terwilliger Home

With its foundation laid in Kansas Territory, the Terwilliger home at 803 West Main Street, Council Grove, Kansas, was built alongside the famed Santa Fe Trail as Kansas became the 34th State. The original portion of this limestone home was built by Abraham and Mary Rawlinson in 1860-61, and it was the last house Santa Fe freighters passed going West when leaving Council Grove as late as 1863. W.R. and Mary Terwilliger purchased the home from the Rawlinsons in 1870 and circa 1871 added an addition to the South. The Terwilligers sold the home in the early 1890s. In 1927 the home became a gas station and served in this capacity until 1977. In 1994 Historic Preservation Corporation, a non-profit IRC 501(c)(3)organization, was formed to save the home from destruction. It has been restored to its former glory and now, as in former days, sits proudly beside the Santa Fe Trail which today is also US Hwy 56. It now houses the Trail Days Cafe & Museum where foods from 1858 to 1977 are part of the museum experience. The menu begins with American Indian, featuring Elk and Buffalo. Old World food is next which features the foods settlers adapted from their country of origin such as English, Italian, French, Scotch-Irish, Swedish, and German. Because some settlers came from back East, Early American foods are included. The final category is 20th Century foods where American Farm meals and Town Square sandwiches are the fare. (Towns were built around the courthouse forming the Town Square). The volunteers, who prepare and serve the food, dress in period costume.