By Carla Charter

On April 1, Cynthia Butler, owner of Wheeler Mansion, is hoping to recreate a photo taken on the building’s front lawn on October 1925 when it reopened as the Eastern Star Rest Home. Butler hopes the new photo will serve as a marker of the mansion’s reopening.

The Wheeler Mansion was originally built by John Wheeler, then-president of New Home Sewing Machine Company in Orange, and was completed in 1903. Construction of the mansion at that time cost $200,000, equivalent to approximately $6 million in today’s economy, said Butler. John Wheeler and his wife Almira lived at the mansion until he passed away in 1910, according to Butler.

In the same year after his death, Almira left the mansion and moved to Lake Pleasant in Montague. The mansion was then rented, serving several purposes over the years. Almira, an Eastern Star member, passed away in 1920 and deeded the mansion to the Eastern Star organization. After extensive renovations—during which the original four-bedroom home became a 20-bedroom rest home—it opened as the Eastern Star Home in 1925 and remained so until its closing in 1990.

The women who lived at the home were all members of the Order of the Eastern Star as well.

“It was very similar to an assisted living facility, but it was specific to Eastern Star Members,” said Butler. Residents, she continued, came from across the country as well as overseas. One of the oldest residents of Massachusetts at the time, Althea Halberg, lived at the home, passing away at 108, she said. In her renovations, Butler has recognized the history of the mansion as an Eastern Star home. All of the bedrooms at the new bed and breakfast bear the names of women who lived at the home. A garden in the backyard has been named the Garden of the Eastern Star and includes a hedge maze with a large star in the center as homage to the property’s Eastern Star heritage. Butler has been renovating the mansion since 2020.

“It’s been a full- time job renovating,” she said. “It was expensive to do but it was worth it. The building was completely worthy of my time and I am very attached to it.”

As for surprises during renovations, Butler said that when she climbed up into the third-floor attic, she saw the dome ceiling and became curious as to why it was there. After investigating further, she discovered an article at the Orange Historical Society which talked about John Wheeler’s billiard room on the third floor. During the renovations, “I took out some of the bedrooms and revealed the original billiard room on the third floor, which is now a billiard room again.”

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The new ribbon cutting for the Wheeler Mansion Bed and Breakfast will be held on April 1 at 4 p.m. The ground floor will be open and garden tours will be free during the event.

“I would love to recreate photo from 1925,” Butler said. “I am hoping to have both photos hanging in the mansion.”

More information on the mansion can be found at Revivalwheelermansion.com.

Carla Charter is a freelance writer from Phillipston. Her writing focuses on the history of the North Quabbin area. Contact her at cjfreelancewriter@earthlink.net.