W.H. Stark House Debuts New Tour Formats
March 4, 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact: Patsy Herrington
The W.H. Stark House Director
pherrington@whstarkhouse.org
409.883.0871
ORANGE, Texas, March 4, 2009 - Enhanced tour formats are now available at The W.H. Stark House and offered as a supplement to the traditional Stark House tour, including foreign language options and a treasure hunt activity.
For visitors whose primary language is not English, tour highlight cards are now available in French, Spanish and German, with Italian, Chinese and Japanese to be added later this year. The W.H. Stark House staff developed the foreign language tour card program with assistance from the faculty at Lamar University in Beaumont. The cards describe the Stark House floor plan and several facts about the objects in each room viewed during the tour. The goal is to aid visitors who communicate in a language other than English in understanding what the English-speaking guides are referring to as they point out the various objects in the House throughout a tour.
Visitors desiring a tour highlight card may request a card in their primary language, if available, and they may keep the primary language tour highlight card for future reference.
The treasure hunt activity is targeted for visitors ages 10 to 19, but any visitor is welcome to participate. Participants receive a sheet of paper with images of items on display throughout the Stark House and then try to locate the various items during the tour. The result is an interactive and engaging way to explore the many rare and unique items on view in The W.H. Stark House.
Tours of The W.H. Stark House are available Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with regular admission. Special group pricing is available for group tours that are scheduled in advance. Tour participants must be 10 years of age or older. All tours for the Stark House begin in the lobby of the Stark Museum of Art, which is located at 712 Green Ave., one block west of the Stark House in downtown Orange. Stairs are an essential part of the complete Stark House tour.
For more information, please visit whstarkhouse.org or call 409.883.0871.
About The W.H. Stark House
The W.H. Stark House is a Victorian landmark in Orange, Texas, which has been restored to its original splendor.
The 14,000 square-foot home was completed in 1894 in Orange, Texas by William Henry Stark and his wife, Miriam M. Lutcher Stark, prominent philanthropists who occupied the home until 1936. Designed in the Queen Anne architectural style, the house features a distinctive turret, stained glass windows, and ornate woodwork in cypress and long leaf yellow pine.
Today, the three-story structure stands much as it did at the turn of the 20th century, with fifteen rooms of original family furnishings, personal effects and decorative arts, including antique rugs, original textiles, silver, cut glass and antique porcelain. Also featured are the Stark family's impressive collections of American Brilliant Period cut glass, pressed and pattern glass, milk glass, porcelains, and other 18th and 19th century decorative accessories. The interior of both The W.H. Stark House and its adjacent Carriage House depicts the home life of the Starks in the early 1900s and provides an extraordinary statement of Texas' social history.
The W.H. Stark House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a Record Texas Historic Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission. It is operated as a program of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, a private foundation established in 1961 by H.J. Lutcher Stark, the only surviving child of Miriam M. and W.H. Stark.
###