dowling house

We just returned from a visit to this house. As soon as Noreen opened the door I was blown away by how perfectly preserved and realistic it looked for its period. It still has all the old tools and building accessories like square nails etc. Noreen was very informative and we also enjoyed doing the Victorian photo shoot at the request of our two year old daughter! The tour obviously had a lasting impression on our daughter as she pointed out the "old house" as we passed it by.

Yep! This place back in the hayday was considered a mansion. The main floor was the store with the living quarters upstairs. This is where we learned that most of the people in the town died young from lead poisoning. All their plates and cups were made with it as they mined it and it took them years to figure out it was killing them. Another great history lesson.

We bought the combo tickets with the Belvidere mansion and enjoyed getting to walk through the house. It was a short, about half an hour tour that was interesting, but really it was just neat to see the inside of this old dwelling. It's not very often that you get to see how families in the early 1800s lived!

We stopped here at about 11.10am yesterday after it's purported 11am opening. Sign said "open" and the lights were on but the place was locked up tighter than a drum. After waiting around for about 5 minutes we gave up left.Later we went to the Belvedere Mansion and they wanted to sell us a combo ticket for it and the Dowling House. We explained that we had already tried to see it and declined to buy the combo given the unreliability of the open hours. The docent called over there and found out that someone was a half hour late for work yesterday morning. My suggestion would be to not buy the combo tickets unless you're sure the place is open and ready for business.

We bought the combo tickets with the Belvidere mansion. This is a short tour made interesting by our friendly and knowledgeable guide.

Very cool original home and trading post. See with your own eyes how peaple really live in the early 1800's.

My wife and I really enjoyed the tour. The house is both an old trading post and residence from the 1830s. Very true to that era. The day we went there, though, it was hot as blazes in the trading post. It is also very close. While I thought it was a little expensive given the fact that it only takes 30 minutes to see the place, it was still worth it.

Very interesting tour, great guide, worth doing. PHOTOS ARE NOT ALLOWED, which was not posted, stated until after pictures were taken.

Bought the combo ticket for Belvedere Mansion. Great price for two homes. Very small home , but the oldest in Galena, Il. A great tour guide gave us a lot of information, and indulged us in ghost stories. Took only 30 min. To do the tour.

The oldest house in Galena was really cool. Makes a lot of people like us realize that those were the "luxury" back in the days and live with what you got. It obviously looks old, it smells old, and the items on display were fascinating as well.

Interesting story about the history and who bought the house and what the person did to restore it.The tour guide was fun and very informative. The décor of the house was really cool and she talked about and showed the origin of all the antiques in the home. Very cool.

This tour was very interesting and my daughter continued to ask but where is the televisions in this house, hummm.. It was very nice to see how people lived back then.

Wife and I took the tour of the house. The guide was ok but recited the history so much by rote. Lots of items to look at but had to prod the guide to find out how or what something was used for.

I was on the first solo tour of my guide. I thought she did a great job. The tour is short, so getting a combo ticket is economical. Amazing that that piece of history still stands. I learned something on the tour about Galena that I began to notice everywhere else around town. I enjoyed taking something away from the experience I could use on the rest of my trip.

It's hard to imagine being in a house built in 1829. Considered a mansion in its day, it seems primitive now, but quite interesting to visit. Make it part of your trip to Galena.