Boldman House Museum

08/29/2026

A visiting motorcyclist stopped in town recently, wearing this shirt. I asked if I could take a photo - for posterity. 😄

08/27/2026

Whatever Stephen Boldman was building in 1915, he would still be able to buy the materials today at City Lumber. 😁

08/21/2026

We’ve had 20 crazy-fun visitors to the House in the last week. In a strange new twist to the interesting convos we have, a lady originating from Brazil noticed the mini vintage Chiclet gum box on the vintage Boldman shelf:

“Did you know that chiclet is the Portuguese word for gum, and it comes from the Aztec Nahuatl word chictli, which means ‘sticky stuff.’
😳😀

Come see us for crazy fun conversations about the history we all come from!

08/02/2026

How many keys do you have in your house? Do you know what they all open? Or close up? At Boldman House we have over 130, at last count. Representing about as many years of change in lock-and-key technology. Skeleton keys, diary keys, ignition keys Yale keys, mystery keys.

Recognize any? 😊

07/28/2026

Get your tickets! Help us further the mission of preservation, education, and interpretation!

Evening at the Depot, Tickets Selling FAST! 🎟️ -
https://EveningattheDepot.charityauction.bid

Newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/b4bf04f503c2/heres-whats-new-at-the-depot-12753916

07/24/2026

This antique amber bottle hangs out in a corner of the kitchen, where many don't notice it. It is rare, in excellent condition, and has a bit of a history to it...
..Joseph Henry Day (son of Jesse Day, the founder of Dayton) helped create the city's first drug store in 1877. One day soon after, Stephen Boldman walked in and purchased a bottle of San Francisco Peruvian Bitters (recipe bellow), with J.H. Day's druggist label affixed. Bitters were sold as a tummy tonic. (This bottle was manufactured that very year, and is extremely rare to find in excellent condition these days.)

Later, the Boldman's used it to store gasoline - as presumed by the after-market alteration of "gasoline" typed at the top of the druggist's label.

And even later, the Boldman's filled it with sand, popped a cork in it (maybe the original cork?), tied a rope on, and used it as a window weight in the bathroom. It was found by the window restorer working in the house during the restoration period, following Gladys' death in 1999.

This is proof of one reason why the Boldman's never threw anything away - things become handy, over and over and over...

07/18/2026

Boldman House celebrates Dayton's Alumni Weekend, and the spirit of community, connection, and conviviality that sustains it! Hats off to those who share roots and memory in the time we have to share!

07/18/2026

DISCOVERED: a puzzling thing.

Like a lot of other material things, the Boldman key collection (incidental and circumstantial amassing of keys over a century) is an amazing assortment of sizes, styles, and changes in technology, opening any number of things that could be locked.

Found among them: these two curiously "misplaced" skeleton key puzzles.

Come visit the House and see how long it takes you to untangle a pair.

07/09/2026

Media sensationalism and doomsday scenarios are not new to the 21st century!

This clipping from a 1933 issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was discovered recently in Gladys Boldman's business school curriculum file box.