July 9-Amanda Walker

The goal of this historical building is to educate our generation on how past generations in Glasgow once lived. When people started to move down into the lowland out of the highland in Scotland, they found a rather shocking life style waiting for them. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746 many highlanders moved into cities and overseas. They did this for economic and health and safety reasons.

When they came into the cities they found dark, dank and drafty living conditions which they were unfamiliar with. This particular tenement building is retrofitted for the World War II era. The owner ,Miss Taword, owned her home until 1900 when the historical society bought it.

She left behind many wonderful antiques for the society to use for educational means. One of the most interesting facts that I found out was that the wall paper had been striped to reveal the beautiful light white and tan paper underneath. Many years of paper had to be taken off of to find what was underneath.

During the war Miss Taword had bought a gas mask and other items that the government at the time said that every person would need. She saved all of her government issue items that help educate visitors about the fear and hope that struck a nation. She left behind her old wedding dress, shoes, soap, iron and other items that assisted in the onlooker understanding the life of a tenement renter. She was what we would call today wealthy. She could afford the shop at the COOP. This was a big deal in those days. She could order many things that a normal tenement renter could not and she could afford to keep her home clean.

The old fixtures and walkways give an eerie feeling. The educational posters that line the apartments show the concern at the time of the renter’s life, of positional death from bombing. When you walk into this apartment building for a moment it will remind you of any other building. However on the entrance of these rooms will a person start to be taken back to what this generation like to refer to as a simpler time. I do not feel that it was at all simple. Fearing for one’s life every day, because you can hear the bombers coming is not a simpler time. The owner of these apartments worked very hard on the upkeep of them. This is the only reason that we can now have the benefit of them. Thank you Miss Taword!

In our class we have looked at the migration of large groups of individuals. Due to this study I have learned a great deal about how these individuals suffered. If we want to study any large group of people it is always best to start with what they lost. The generation that fought, survived and lived on after the wars are braver then I ever could be. These lessons have provided the students with a glimpse into our past. We all have grandparents and family members that had something to do with the wars that our nations have fought in. If we would study the everyday lives of the ones left being maybe we can understand how to recover from the present struggles that effect our generation.