LeRoy King’s account with plumber James Openshaw for work at Berkeley House in 1889
During the Gilded Age, preparing your cottage for the six week summer season was a busy and expensive production. Before arrival, the house and grounds were brought to perfect condition by an army of gardeners, housekeepers, blacksmiths, grooms and their local vendors. Plumbers were constantly on call to drain and fill the pipes and perform numerous repairs, long before the days of shut-off valves and The Home Depot.
Photo of the Berkeley House from the Rhinelander Family scrapbook in the NHS collections.