Koester House Museum

The Koester House Museum was originally built as a two room bungalow and was completed in four different stages in 1876 as a wedding present from Charles Koester to his new bride Sylvia. The house is decorated with items all belonging to the members of the family that lived there. In 1883, a brick retaining wall was built around the house to keep water from Spring Creek from entering when it flooded. Mr. Koester devised the solution to elevate the steps that entered into the front and side of the property. In the music room sits a square Chickering grand piano with two music books belonging to the daughters, Tinnie and Jenny. One room is dedicated to their beloved wife and mother, Sylvia, with several of her personal items. The formal parlor and library both contain large sets of Victorian parlor furniture. A one of a kind fireplace is a showpiece of the parlor and the library contains floor to ceiling shelving that houses an extensive book collection belonging to Charles. The formal dining room features two built in china closets. The kitchen has pass through windows where food was brought into the house from the summer kitchen behind the house. The garden was the pride and joy of Charles and Sylvia. It contains one of America's largest white zinc collection of bronze statues belonging to a private family. In 1878, a newspaper from Kansas City called it the most beautiful yard in the country at that time. Many of the flowers and trees are still in place from their original plantings, including a buckeye tree that has been there for over a hundred years.