The High Noon Entertainment filming crew was at Rockcliffe Mansion last fall recording a segment of “If Walls Could Talk,” for HGTV.
It is tentatively scheduled to air sometime after the first of the year, possibly July 14, according to Leslie Wilson, line producer of the company.
The series shares lore and intrigue from homes rich in history - some good, some notorious. Many of the featured buildings have housed famous characters, while others are the sites of significant historical events. Some of the selected structures are simply filled with good stories or were home to everyday people with colorful pasts.
Bringing out a house’s history beyond “whoever used to live here,” puts real facts, real faces and real objects onto what otherwise would be a generic history. Their life becomes a part of the present life. Learning about the occupants goes beyond seeing some names on a deed. It becomes real and exciting.
“We had a researcher looking in the St. Louis area and found some homeowners in Hannibal that had interesting stories,” said Wilson. “The home is a Colonial Revival with 10 marble fireplaces, seven bedroom sets and Tiffany throughout the house. It was built with the finest wood money could buy. A Civil War quilt, old bottles filled with bourbon and wine, along with other things have been found in the house.”
A line appraiser with High Noon, Cheri Elliott, from Hartford, Conn., was present during the filming to evaluate items in the home.
Tony Kartsonas, conservation restoration specialist, was also present, focusing on the preservation of the home and giving advice on surface finishes.
“I think what is really fascinating about examining Rockcliffe are the interior finishes inside,” he said. “The majority of it is pretty well intact and untouched. For a structure this size and being dormant for over 40 years, it’s a wonder it wasn’t seriously vandalized or altered. It’s significant that the finishes have survived without even changes.”
Probably the vacancy for so long is what saved it. If other people had lived in the house there would have been modifications to the house.”
With all the great houses that have been built, Rockcliffe is the grandest Kartsonas has seen in Hannibal and said, “It’s one of the most impressive in the Midwest. To come into a home where everything is the same as when it was originally built is pretty impressive.”
The ceilings actually are original, aluminum leaf with a stencil and glaze on top. The wallpaper is a French guild embossed, flocked patterns and also has some Japanese leather patterns.
“There several rooms in the mansion that are being filmed,” said Rick Rose, owner. “They’re focusing on things that have been discovered in the mansion. For me it was awesome. When I bought Rockcliffe, I had no idea of all the hidden treasures in the house. I knew about the history and the stories, but we have found original liquor bottles and gloves that belonged to Mrs. Cruikshank. It turned out that she had over 100 pairs of white linen gloves. She would put on a pair each time she came down the grand staircase that Mark Twain spoke from.”
The gloves were discovered, Rose added, “in a crook and cranny in the ballroom on the third floor. A lot of these things were found from people in Hannibal that wanted to come to the mansion to explore and look at things they had heard about but never seen. They would find things and bring them to me. We would research it and find the story behind it.”
High Noon Entertainment also produces Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels, Food Network Challenge, Unwrapped, Offbeat America, America Toast to Toast, Carter Can and Dream House, among a few.
Rockcliffe, the old Cruikshank Mansion
The mansion has been a showplace in Hannibal since it was built by J.J. Cruikshank in 1900, except between the years of 1925 and 1968.
Cruikshank, a millionaire lumber baron, chose the high rocky knoll with a magnificent view of the river at 1000 Bird St. to build his dream home on the highest bluff in Hannibal.
There was a house on the property which Cruikshank had moved to the west and it still sits next door to the mansion.
His dream became a reality when he, his wife and four daughters moved in the 13,000-square-foot, 30-room mansion.
After Cruikshank’s death in 1924, the family vacated the house and it was boarded up for 43 years.
Because he spent most of his fortune building and furnishing his mansion, Cruikshank left little money to his widow. She moved next door to the relatively smaller house her husband had relocated to make room for the new mansion.
Two weeks before the home was to be razed, it was saved by three local families and restored to the beauty of its historical past.
Rockcliffe today is complete with original artifacts, paintings, furniture, clothing and personal artifacts of the family, throughout nine bedrooms, seven bathrooms, parlors, music room, butler’s pantry, ballroom, servants quarters and more.
The mansion now serves as a bed and breakfast with a cellar bistro. Events feature live entertainment, a gift shop, gallery, classes as well as mystery lunches and dinners, Victorian teas, weddings, private parties, family reunions and other events.
