The Charles M. Bair Family Museum opens to the public on May 1 in Martinsdale. The ranch home of the Bair family, Charlie and Mary and their daughters, Alberta and Marguerite, is a repository of antiques, paintings and Indian artifacts that reflect the lives of one of the most intriguing and affluent families in Montana.
Visitors begin their tour in the Visitor Center—formerly the bam. A picture of Charles Bair and an eight-foot picture of a train of his wool first greet the visitor. The Visitor Center also offers a gift shop filled with unique gifts and mementos of your visit and displays portraying the family life of the Bairs as well as a history of the wool industry.
All tours through the Bair family home are guided by a docent. Upon entering the home, you’ll see a bench in the foyer with a number of hats. Alberta, the second Bair daughter, always wore a red hat in her later years.
She would stop and put on a hat before answering the door bell. If it was someone she did not want to see, she would say, “Oh, I am so sorry, I was just going out.” If the visitor was a welcome one, the greeting would be, “Oh, do come in. I just got in myself.”
From there the docent leads the tour into the Pine Room, the Bair’s favorite room where the family lived and informally entertained. This room is filled with Indian artifacts, and the knotty pine on the walls and ceilings took two years to obtain from California.
To the north of the Pine Room is the “office,” added in the early ‘60s. One of the features of this room is a wall of signed photographs of U.S. Presidents and their wives, reflecting Bair’s continued interest in politics.
The formal Dining Room is a virtual storehouse of predominately Paul Storr Silver and features a Duncan Phyfe table. A short hallway leads to the Living Room where the crystal chandelier dominates the room. This formal room also has two ums, or “perfume burners,” next to and above the fireplace, purportedly from the royal summer palace in Holland. Two bedrooms and a bathroom feature gold fixtures and Norwegian rose marble.
While the Museum opens on Wednesday, May 1, there is a public grand opening with light refreshments, entertainment and guided tours from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 2. The last guided tour through the home will be at 3:00, and Governor Marc Racicot will speak at 4:00 p.m.
From the Big Timber Pioneer