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tv   Mayowood  CSPAN  April 21, 2019 10:29pm-10:45pm EDT

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you are watching american history tv, 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter. for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. ♪ >> the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. >> ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. >> and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. c-span's newest book, the presidents, noted historians rank america's best and worst chief executives, provides insight into the lives of the 44
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american presidents through interviewshered by with noted presidential historians. explore the events that shaped our leaders, challenges they faced, and the legacies they have left behind. published by public affairs, c-span's "the presidents" will be president" will be on shelves on april 23. www.c-span.org order today atwww.c-span.org/thepresidents, or wherever books are sold. >> today we are at mail would m ayowood. we will learn about the three generations that lived here. chuck: today we are at mayowood, and there were three generations that lived in this home. the home was built in 1910 and 1911.
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charlie and his family lived here until 1940. william and his wife louise had three children. will and a, dr. daughter named gertrude. both of the boys were intrigued with medicine and watched their father do surgeries and things. they got involved at a very young age. they lived in large victorian homes on college street in rochester. they lived right next-door to each other. the story goes that they wanted to build a library across the back of the two homes and connect the two homes together. their wives -- after the clinic was going -- their wives said no. you work all they together, you share a checkbook. you don't need to live together. in june of 1906, the family was tree andpicnic under a they decided this is where they would build the big house. twinerought string and
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and laid the house out and hired farm laborers to come build a home. there is no specific architectural style that it is. it is often referred to as dr. charlie architectural style. dr. charlie and edith moved in in 1911. they both died in 1939. in 1940, edith decided she would move out of the house and the second-generation moved in. dr. chuck and alice moved in at that point in time. in the late 1950's, the third-generation turned it into a duplex. alice lived here with young dr. charlie. there were many people who came here, both famous and not famous. president roosevelt was here to visit. the king and queen of nepal came to visit. helen keller stayed here. jack benny was here. many of these people were
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friends and had been to rochester as patients. they would often stay here in the home. there are also a lot of fun stories. like there is a great story of a couple who showed up on the property. this is when the second-generation was here, dr. chuck was here. this couple showed up and they were from a little town 40 miles from here. they interacted with the family and it was time to go into dinner so they invited them to come into dinner. they sat down at the dining room table and had dinner with them. when they finished, they got up to say thank you and they said do you always invite perfect , strangers into your home? the family said we try to entertain anyone who is around. they said we have another couple we think would really enjoy come over and meeting you. would be ok if they came along? we are in the living room of the home. when the mayo family built the home, there is a wonderful grand staircase put on the front of the house. guests would be dropped off at the bottom of the staircase and they would make their way up.
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the living room was the entertaining part. it was where they started off entertaining. they would stop in here to have hors d'oeuvres or a drink. this is what that room was all about. behind me is a portrait of dr. charles mayo. he and his wife edith were the ones who have the home built. the two portraits on the side are the daughters-in-law. alice in the green dress. her favorite color. she was married to dr. chuck. ruth in the red dress was married to their other son dr. joe. dr. charlie and edith had six children. there were other people who lived with them over the years. if there was a family who had a need, oftentimes children would come live here in the house. this house has stories of circuses that took place. they had producers come in and do theater with the kids.
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there were 3000 acres that make up mayowood originally. when dr. charlie was alive. there were a total of eight farms that the family operated. they hired all of these laborers from around the area to work on all of these farms. it would have been the greatest place to grow up. the river is down the hill and there were hills going down to the stables. it was a great place to grow up. we are leaving the living room and coming into the dining room now. originally, the wall that was right here separated the dining room from the front terrace. you are standing at the front terrace of the home. the mayo family entertained a lot. it was not unusual to have large parties of 100 or more. the family would entertain a -- entertain very formally. they decided to expand the dining room into this other room as well. dr. charlie was notorious for bringing home special guests and people who were at mayo clinic
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that he did not necessarily expect to see but showed up. two extra places were always set at the dining room table for them. the children were expected to be very knowledgeable of the times and what was going on in the country and the news from around the world. these were often the dinner topics. one of my favorite stories told by mary, one of dr. chuck's daughters was of them getting up in the middle of the night and going to the back of the house and going down to the stable and getting out the horses. then they rode off to the girl scout camp which was a mile and a half away. they went to the girl scout camp in the middle of the night and cut the ropes on all of the tents were the girls were sleeping. dropped all the tents. of course the girls were screaming and yelling. the children came back and brought the horses back to the house. that sunday at dinner because they always did these big sunday brunch is -- brunches.
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dr. chuck was at the table and he was asking the children if they knew anything about this. the children said no. did not know about it. he said it was in the newspaper. he said the interesting part of the story, the footprints from the horses came back to our barns. are you sure you don't know anything about this? because if i ever found out who those children were, i would drag them down broadway behind they horse. i think the feeling of mayowood is much more family oriented. have a great time. very jovial. don't take life too seriously. dr. will's home is much more formal and it is reflective of the personalities of the two brothers. coming into the gallery of the home this room has changed a lot , from when the family lived here. the niches were built into the walls.
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they were originally two more entrances. there are great mirrors throughout the house. there are 13 of these originally the mayo's went to mexico on a buying trip and brought these back from mexico. they were shipped up the mississippi river and picked up 35 miles away and brought over to the home. originally in the home was built the walls were all wood panel and it was really dark. it was like a gallery in a museum and there were paintings lining the walls of the entire room. when chuck and alice lived here, their son ned was being married to rita and the home was changed greatly because the big window was put in looking out to the courtyard. that was in the mid-50's. outside in the courtyard, you see the trees. the red oak tree that the home was built around. the home is like a squatty u.
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it basically goes around the tree. we are in the library of the home now. this room has a lot of interesting features. probably most notably, the double rocking chair. this rocking chair sat on dr. charlie's porch when the two brothers lived next door to each other on college avenue in rochester. it has been brought here to mayowood. the two brothers would sit in the chair at the end of the day and discuss their cases they had seen and who they had treated and the results of their work. this happened most every day between the two brothers. they were very, very close. both of the brothers read volumes and volumes and both of the homes have hundreds and hundreds of books in them. big libraries and both of them. i would guess we have thousands of books between the two homes. they had card catalogs and they were all listed by the card catalogs and had card boxes all the cards were into. one of the things we have to
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figure out how you're going to get a picture of is the family's growth chart. when you come in and you look at this wall, you can see all of the kids wrote on the wall and what year it was and how they were growing up. i don't have any idea how many male family names are here but there is the name of lily mayo and we see her grow up along the wall. lily is an employee at the mayo clinic today. heading up the stairs to the second floor, featured on the wall are the six portraits of chuck and alice's children. dr. charlie is the oldest who is still living and alex the youngest down here with the red hair. here on the second floor, we are currently in the master bedroom. when dr. charlie and edith lived here, looking out the windows from this room, they basically
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owned every piece of property they can see from here with their 3000 acres. dr. charlie was very involved and when he left mayo clinic and came out here, he wanted to become a farmer. so he was very in touch with nature and what was going on in the environment. again very involved in recycling. kind of tamed this area if you will and channeled the water where he wanted it. there was a series of eight ponds on the ground. he had a trout pond and really made it all work for the family. some of the children in telling their stories told us the fastest ways out of the house at night. i think some of the children spent more time outside of the house at night than they did inside the house. as people tour mayowood, we hope they will see that the mayo family was a real family. they got into trouble like all kids do.
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i hope when people leave that is what they will take with them, real families lived in this wonderful home. >> rochester minnesota is one of many cities we have toured to explore the american story. to watch more of a visit to rochester and other cities, www.c-span.org go to www.c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. the complete guide to congress is now available. it has details about the house and senate for the current session of congress. contacted bio information about every senator and representative, plus information about congressional committees, state governors, and the cabinet. the 2019 congressional directory is a handy spiral-bound guide. order your copy from the c-span online store for $18.95.
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week american history tv's real america brings you archival films that provide context for today's public affairs issues. the department of health, education and welfare licenses vaccines for use in united states. the surgeon general, dr. luther terry -- >>the measles vaccine has been successfully tested both in this country and abroad. this painstaking evaluation was made possible by the cooperative effort of scientists both in and out of government, by physicians, the drug history, and by thousands of courageous parents who have permitted their children to participate in the field trials. the secretary of health, education and welfare has
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licensed the vaccine for general use. as increasing numbers of children are vaccinated we will be well on the way to arata getting the disease that down through the centuries has killed millions of children and left others impaired mentally and physically. all of those who have contributed in any way to this cause can be proud of a great achievement. hours of official government licensing, supplies are ready for shipment to doctors throughout the country. today production is in full swing. elaborateby the manufacturing controls established by industry together with the federal government. finally the vaccine which passed all the tests and transferred to individual bottles. these are freeze-dried and sealed.

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