photo by: Gage Vota

Belmont County Historical Society President Kathy Messenger and society board member Brock Rogers pose in front of the Christmas tree at the Belmont County Victorian Mansion Museum.

The holiday season is officially underway at the historic Belmont County Victorian Mansion Museum.

On Friday evening it held a soft opening for its Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” experience. Originally completed in 1893, the 26-room mansion has been converted into an immersive holiday experience that pays tribute to the English author Dickens while informing the community about the house’s history.

Located at 532 N. Chestnut St., the brick home was built by John W. and Sarah Bradfield. The Richardsonian Romanesque-style building remained in the Bradfield family until 1966 when the Belmont County Historical Society acquired the property and established a museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The mansion has 11 fireplaces and is decorated year-round as would befit a prominent family of the Victorian era.

Belmont County Historical Society President Kathy Messenger said the annual holiday season exhibition is the museum’s largest fundraiser. She said more than 50 volunteers from the Belmont County community helped decorate the mansion for the occasion, adding that they started decorating Oct. 1 and only finished hours before the soft opening started.

“The last few years we picked a theme, just to help our decorators kind of have an idea to know what they’re decorating. This year we picked Dickens’ ‘Christmas Carol,'” she said.

The exhibit features a wide array of Christmas decorations to get visitors in the holiday spirit even though the weather is anything but wintry right now. Several rooms have life-sized characters from the iconic story with one room even having the Ghost of Christmas Past confronting Ebenezer Scrooge in one of the several beds on location at the museum.

The exhibit runs from now until Dec. 22 with an $8 entrance fee for adults and $2 for students ages 6-18. Messenger added that there is a $1 discount for senior citizens, veterans and groups of 10 people or more.

In hope of raising more money, the museum held a raffle where the winner would receive an on-site four-course dinner for 10 guests with live music and a tour of the facility included. The raffle drawing was done live on social media with the winner being Belmont County Historical Society board member Rita Hall. Hall, who wasn’t at the museum at the time of the announcement, said she received text messages from a few friends informing her that they saw the Facebook Live broadcast and that she had won. Once informed of her win, she began making plans about which of her friends she was going to invite.

Messenger added that although the dinner is a one-time event this year, the mansion hosts a few “Christmas Teas” – a private tea time event at the mansion with a tour included. The three Christmas tea events are Nov. 16 and Dec. 6 and 7. She added that the Nov. 16 event is already sold out, but the Dec. 6 and 7 events still have tickets available.

Tickets for those events are $25 a person. To reserve a spot at either event, call 740-695-0766 to purchase tickets.

“We try to have teas throughout the year as fundraisers. We’re nonprofit here, so every bit of money raised goes right back into the museum for its upkeep,” Messenger said.

She added that depending on the attendance, tours at the museum take about an hour to an hour and a half to complete.