CAIRO'S MAGNOLIA MANOR TO OPEN 'HOLIDAY HOUSE' FOR THANKSGIVING

CAIRO, Ill. -- Historic Magnolia Manor will open for the Christmas season on Thanksgiving Day.

All 14 rooms of the 1869 mansion will be decorated in the theme of "Claus & Company Entertain at Holiday House."

Another historic Cairo building on the National Register of Historic Places -- the Custom House Museum -- will observe Friday hours for tours.

The Cairo Public Library, also on the National Register, and known by many as "Safford Library," will be open Saturday.

Every room in Magnolia Manor, 2700 Washington, will include displays, said Tim Slapinski, curator at the manor. And, a giant tree will be set up in the drawing room of the elegant old mansion.

The mansion opens on Thanksgiving Day at 1 p.m. and will maintain holiday house hours from 1 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It reopens the weekend of Dec. 5 and 6, for tours, before resuming its regular 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours Monday, Dec. 7.

Tickets for holiday house will be available at the Manor.

The Holiday House is the major fund-raising event of the year at the Magnolia Manor, which is owned by the Cairo Historical Association and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The decorations at Holiday House are for sale, and a bazaar, featuring souvenirs and home-baked items, will be open, with all proceeds used to maintain the manor.

The four-story, red brick Victorian mansion was built by Charles Galigher, owner of a successful flour mill in Cairo. He accumulated his fortune by selling flour for hardtack to the government during the Civil War.

Galigher designed much of the house himself, including unique round bricks used as decoration on the chimney and other places in the mansion.

He also became friends with Gen. Ullysses.S. Grant, who spent many night in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

From 1871 to 1952, the 14-room mansion was home to four private owners: Charles Galigher, H.H. Candee, P.T. Langan and Fain W. King.

In 1952, the Cairo Historical Association formed and decided to restore the home as its first project. The Galigher home became Magnolia Manor.

The Custom House Museum, 1400 Washington, will be open Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tours are also available Saturday by appointment.

Cairo was declared a "Port of Delivery" by the 33rd Congress in 1854. The custom house was constructed after the Civil War, completed in 1872. The building, which has housed custom offices, a post office, police station, federal court and other government agencies, closed in 1975. It was reopened as a museum in 1992.

Displays at the museum included items from the "U.S.S. Cairo" Gunboat, on loan from the Vicksburg National Park Service; Gen. U.S. Grant's desk, on loan from the Cairo Public Library, which the general used while he was stationed in Cairo; and many other historic items pertaining to Cairo, Alexander and Pulaski counties.

Grant's headquarters were in the Holliday Hotel, a huge structure that overlooked the Ohio River. The Holliday Hotel in its final days served as a "storage shed" for the city of Cairo before giving way to a demolition crew in the late 1970s. The hotel had been damaged by fire earlier in the 1970s.

The Cairo Public Library was built in 1884 and presented to the city by Mrs. Anna M. Safford. The library, at 1609 Washington, also contains many historic items.

One of the historical items at the library is the "Fighting Boys" sculpture, which appears at the library entrance.