One house stands apart from the rest in Geneseo: a 9,000 square foot mansion on North Street. However, it’s the house’s owner who had an even bigger presence.
Meet 99-year-old Mabel Brown.
“She was a pillar of our community. Everybody knew who Mable Brown was. Everybody knew what home was hers,” said Angie Snook, curator of the Geneseo Historical Museum and friend to Brown.
The house is hard to miss. Originally built as a school building in the 1850s, Brown’s parents bought it and converted it into a house in the early 1900s. It’s where Brown lived here entire life.
Snooks said Brown was a person who enjoyed her privacy, so an invitation to into her home was rare. As a result, very few people ever saw the inside — until now.
Brown passed away at 99 years old last September, but this weekend the doors of her mansion will open up for an estate sale.
Brown was an antique collector, a hobby Snook said she got from her mother, and this weekend her treasures are for sale.
Tom Krupp is the president of Coy-Krupp Conducted Sales, the company coordinating the estate sale. In his 26 years in business, Krupp said he rarely finds a collection this big.
Brown’s home is filled with six generations of antiques she collected herself and inherited from other family members. Among Brown’s treasures are old halloween decorations, dolls, trunks and lots of china.
“Every cupboard was full — every nook and cranny. Every closet,” Krupp said.
Together, these collectibles tell the story of Mabel Brown’s remarkable life.
“She was a very private person,” Krupp said. “People got one image of her. I think this opens up a whole other world to what kind of person she really was.”
She was her parents only child and miracle baby. Her mother was 42 years old when she gave birth to Brown in their home.
Brown never married or had children of her own, but in her own way she’s leaving a powerful legacy.
Brown’s father was a prominent attorney, deeply involved in Republican politics. She followed in his footsteps becoming the first female lawyer in Geneseo.
“She was ahead of her time and not afraid to go back into the community and do the work that her parents had been doing,” Snook said.
Work she loved so much, she continued to do it until just days before her death last September.
And like her father, she held onto her conservative values until the end.
“She made the comment to me once, ‘I was born a Republican and I’m going to die a Republican,’” Snook said.
Above all, Mabel Brown loved her town. Without Brown, the Geneseo Historical Museum wouldn’t be what it is today. Brown played a key role in purchasing the building.
“She had to walk me through baby steps, one by one … and always said, ‘We will grow from this. We will grow from this.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Well, I hope so,’” Snook said.
Twenty years later there’s already one room dedicated to Brown in the museum. After they add the furniture from this weekend’s sale, they’ll have enough to fill a second.
In addition to the museum, Krupp expects buyers from all over the state. Still, Snook hopes those who come take time to see the woman behind these treasures.
“Her whole family was very charitable. I think that’s important to remember. They’ll see all the beautiful things she had and the beautiful house her parents built, but there was more in their hearts than what’s standing on the ground.”
The total value of Mabel Brown’s estate hasn’t been calculated yet. However, she’s continuing to give back with beneficiaries that include the Geneseo Historical Museum, the Geneseo Education Center and her alma mater University of Chicago’s School of Law.
You can visit the estate sale this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 115 E. North Street. For more information click here.
