It's more of a treasure trove and research archive devoted to the art of illusion and sleight of hand. But once everyone agrees to the ground rules, Lund will begin to spin out the story of the magicians whose equipment and other memorabilia occupy the building. In the days before ZIP codes and bar codes, a mail carrier might lose his job if he couldn't memorize that scheme and sort mail according to it quickly and accurately. Children can climb up on the cart once pulled by horses and, if Schragg shakes the cart a little, imagine what it was like to jostle along a mail route long before the advent of priority mail, let alone e-mail. Postal Museum tours are free.
Tours are free, but donations are accepted.
Lucy Franke's interest in Marshall's history centers on the home she shares with her husband, Tom, and which will be one of eight historic homes on Marshall's annual Home Tour Sept. 12 and 13. Lucy Franke said she enjoys participating in the home tour because it shows that these 19th and early 20th Century homes can be lived in comfortably today. The Frankes' Italianate home was built in 1858 by Chauncey Brewer, owner of a dry goods business, and his wife, Emily. There are other people whose names you hear again and again in Marshall whom you will not meet, but who have left their stamps on the community. It was he who saw the value in preserving Marshall's past, from its founding in the 1830s through its ultimately unsuccessful effort to become the state capital, through its boom times of railroad expansion and big-home building, and even the bust times that allowed the town to sit quietly for years and not change.