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BILLINGS, MONTANA - The
Charles M. Bair Family Trust Board of Advisors is pleased to
announce that the Charles M. Bair Family Home will open to
the public this spring and summer under the management and
control of the Upper Musselshell Historic Society, a
501(c)(3) charitable organization located in Harlowton,
Montana. The Bair Home will be opening to the public
ass soon as possible, and the Board of Advisors and the
Upper Musselshell Historic Society anticipate a flood of
community and state-wide support.
The Charles M. Bair Family
Trust and the Upper Musselshell Historic Society have
executed an interim agreement to open the Bair Home for the
2006 season. The Trust's Board of Advisors is
confident that a community-based entity such as the Upper
Musselshell Historic Society has the ability to create and
maintain community support for the historic, artistic, and
scholarly offerings of the art and artifacts that are
currently housed in the Bair Home. With that in mind,
the parties are continuing to negotiate the terms of an
agreement that will permanently address the future of the
home and effectuate the long-term display of the Bair Home
to the public.
The Bair Home will display
the fine china, silver, fixtures, furniture, and antiques
that Alberta and Marguerite Bair acquired during their many
trips to Europe, the European artwork that adorns the walls
of the home, a selection of American Indian artifacts that
Charlie Bair acquired throughout the years, and
reproductions of paintings by Charles M. Russell and Joseph
S. Sharp. It will also include the papers and records
of the Bair family, which are currently located in the Bair
Home.
A trip to the Bair Home will
allow the visitor to step into the home of one of Montana's
most prosperous families. A collection of Paul Storr
Silver fills the Formal Dining Room, which also contains a
Duncan Phyfe table along with an 18th century British
sideboard. Two bedrooms and a bathroom feature gold
fixtures and Norwegian rose marble.
The Pine Room was
the room in the house where the Bair Family lived and
informally entertained; the walls and ceilings are adorned
with knotty pine that reportedly took two years to acquire
from California. The Living Room is dominated by a
Crystal chandelier and features two urns or "perfume
burners," purportedly from the royal summer palace in
Holland.
The Board of Advisors to the
Trust has agreed to provide funds to the Upper Musselshell
Historic Society to maintain the Bair Home and its premises
through this 2006 operating season. The grant will
allow the Upper Musselshell Historic Society to promote the
scholarly, educational, historical and artistic significance
of the Bair property, as it explores ways to involve the
Martinsdale and Montana communities in the operation of the
facility.
The Charles M. Bair Family
Home is located one mile south of the Martinsdale turnoff on
Highway 12 between While Sulphur and Harlowton. |
