Why would you bring strangers into your house?

William McCoy Piatt's Cabinet of Curiousities, 2012

We know that William McCoy Piatt opened Mac-A-Cheek to the public by 1912.  We don't know exactly why.  One popular theory is that he was so tired of people coming up to the house and asking for a tour that he decided to start charging admission to keep them away.  Although it seems plausible that strangers would come to the door asking to be shown around (it is a very cool building after all), but as compelling as this idea may be it is not likely the real story.

William McCoy Piatt's Cabinet of Curiosities, ca. 1915

If you've visited Mac-A-Cheek, you probably remember the large cabinet in the drawing room full of all sorts of random objects (including an ear of corn, a tooth from a mastodon and assorted hatchets).  Many, though not all, of these objects were in this cabinet when William McCoy first opened Mac-A-Cheek.  Curiosity Cabinets such as this were popular as far back as the Renaissance.  They piqued the interest of viewers and allowed them to explore unique and unexpected items.  William McCoy had spent much of his life collecting strange and interesting things that he found around the farm.  He had a cabinet custom-built and installed in his drawing room in order to display this collection, and his desire to share the collection with others is likely the true reason that Mac-A-Cheek was first opened to the public.

Why not make it a bed and breakfast?

Fresco at Mac-O-Chee

I can't begin to count the number of times I've been told that we should turn castles Mac-A-Cheek and Mac-O-Chee into a pair of bed and breakfasts.  Aside from the minor issues of indoor plumbing (or the lack thereof) and very minimal electricity, it seems like a pretty good idea on face value.  I don't really want to spend the rest of my life making coffee and muffins, but I'm sure I could find someone who does. And, yes, providing accommodations for romantic getaways would almost certainly generate more revenue than cultural tourism.
As we enter our 100th year of giving tours it is inevitable that we take a step back and wonder why on earth we are doing this at all.  You have to admit that it's a pretty peculiar situation.  Many family businesses last for only a couple of generations, and those that do last quickly move the place of business out of the living room.  Not us!  I'm the 5th generation Piatt to give tours at the Castles, and rather than move the business out of the living room, we relinquished the living room for the sake of the business.  I can't say exactly why William McCoy decided to open the doors in 1912, but I can reflect on why we keep them open now.  The story we have to tell is both incredibly unique and wonderfully universal.  It is the story of an American family fighting a series of wars and surviving the great depression, and it is also a story of diplomats and poets, soldiers and salesmen, judges and farmers.  Piatt Castles provides an escape from the contemporary into a past that is both familiar and intriguing.  It allows for exploration and contemplation, and it gives us the chance to give back to our community through arts and cultural programming what we could never give back through muffins and coffee.

Multi-tasking

It seems to be a commonly held belief that technological advancements over the past decades have encouraged us to do more with our limited time. For example, I'm writing this post on my phone in the 10 minutes before a class.
Regardless of the technology of the day, multi-tasking has always been a major part of life at Piatt Castles. I work on the website and design t-shirts in between the classes I'm taking toward my Master's degree. My mother, Margaret runs the Theatre department at Urbana University while running the programming and operations at the Castles. My Grandmother taught high school while working at the Castles. My Grandfather's aunts Bertie and Marguerite ran a farm and the Castle while raising their young nephews and bringing the family through the Great Depression.
Like most families Piatts have a wide range of interests, and the aggregation of those interests and the multiple careers that have supplemented work at Piatt Castles over the past several generations make the stories we tell particularly interesting. I feel that every topic is best examined from a wide variety of perspectives, and at the Castles we look at the history of the buildings through the eyes of parents, children, educators, students, farmers, soldiers, business people, visitors, and more. You can help us to examine these stories by adding your own unique perspective.