Christmas memories

From her youngest years, Emily Mayer has loved old houses.

She recalls the houses she lived in when she was a youngster. Her favorites were the older homes. The older, the better.

When she was 13, she went on a family trip to Glacier National Park. They stopped at the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell, and Emily fell in love with it.

Her interest in old homes combined with her interest in history and genealogy.

"I was always the one who was asking my grandmothers what it was like back in the old days." she recalls..

She knew that someday, she wanted to run a house museum - basically, she would live in the house, and it would become a living museum.

"Finally, in 2012, my dream became a reality," she said.

Emily lives in the history she loves.

She owns a cottage home on 3rd Street that she has converted into a historic museum that tells the story of Hi-Line history.

She gives guided tours, holds teas and conducts other special events in the cottage, which dates back to the 1890s, the early days of Havre.

But this time of the year is special. The entire home is in a holiday mode with Christmas trees and decorations throughout the house.

Each tree and each ornament has an historic significance - either national, Hi-Line or family.

For instance, she has a tree decorated as it might have appeared in a middle-class home on the Hi-Line a century ago.

"There might have been paper cones, dry fruits, little gifts, strings of popcorn," she said "But the big floor to ceiling trees with lots of nice ornaments, no. They were only in the homes of the very wealthy."

F. W. Woolworth made his fortune by manufacturing and selling ornaments that enabled people without large sums money to decorate Christmas trees.

During World War II, she said, when other companies had to curtail manufacture of Christmas decorations, Corning Glass Works converted its electric light bulbs into tree lights.

Other decorations marks the 30th anniversary of the filming of "A Christmas Story."

"I don't know anybody who doesn't like that film," she said.

There are trees and decorations in honor of the White House Christmas Tree and a tree with purple lights in honor of her grandmother whose name was Violet.

She even has an Evel Knievel tree on honor of that famous Montanan.

In displays at the house, Emily enjoys telling the history of the many ethnic groups that have settled in Havre over the past century.

African-Americans, Japanese-Americans and even people of Middle Eastern heritage settled in Havre at one time for another. She also tells stories of the Native Americans, including the Little Shell Tribe, of which she is an enrolled member.

"People think of Norwegians settling as homesteaders, but there's a lot more," she said.

Emily also owns the neighboring Matthews home, a larger structure which dates back just about as far as the cottage. She hopes to rehabilitate the house, convert it into the historic building and open a bed and breakfast.