a fascinating tour

I went with my daughter-in-law, her mom and  my granddaughters to tour the Bass mansion (actually, we were told - the Bass summer home) and enjoy the lavish Christmas decorations. I think it has been 44 years since I had been in that building.  All those years ago it was the library for St. Francis College while I was working on my Masters Degree. Now the University of St. Francis uses it as an administrative/office building.  While I truly enjoyed the scrumptious trees and other awesome decorations provided by several decorators around Fort Wayne what really held my interest were the architectural details.  We were told that the size of the house is 24,000 square feet.  By my count there were four servant bedrooms, at least seven guest and family bedrooms, each with its own private bathroom (quite a feature in 1903) and of course the parlor, solarium, library, dining room, kitchen (in three rooms), den, men's game room, pool (billiards) room, ball room (my granddaughters loved this one) and I'm sure I've missed a few. We didn't get to see the servants' quarters but every other room we saw had beautiful ceiling details, unique fireplaces - some marble, some ceramic, some tiled - foot deep door and window recesses with extravagant carving, inlaid floors and more. My particular favorites were the carved, curved doors leading from the formal dining room to the solarium.  All in all a delightful experience.  I've been in castles in Europe that were larger but not more lavish. I salute USF for the wonderful restoration job they've done on this fine old building.