• 919 Broadway Street Marysville, KS 66508

  • 785-562-2417

    • Koester House Museum & Gardens

    Stories from the Koester House 


    COUNTDOWN TO 150 -- Sylvia's Early Years Charles Koester’s future wife, Sylvia Constance Broughten, was born on February 14, 1848. Her parents, Eliza Webster and James E. Brough...
    December 23, 2025 Blog -- Christmas Traditions Carried O... RECOLLECTIONS OF CHRISTMASES IN THE 1950s AND 1960s by Sarah Koester Morrison When cousin Jane (Julia King Muller), her brother, my brot...
    IF THIS HOUSE COULD TALK -- Blog Post #34 -- Christmas E... Christmas was a family affair for Charles’ family. The holidays were spent with the Schmidts (Charles’ sister Jane’s family) and the Bro...
    IF THIS HOUSE COULD TALK - Blog Post #33 - First Christmas Christmas in 1883 was a sad one for Charles. It was his first Christmas without his wife Sylvia who died in April of consumption. Things...
    IF THIS HOUSE COULD TALK—Blog Post #32—Decorating for Ch... Christmas always was festive here. In addition to the usual flowers and plants already here, evergreens were placed in the bay windows a...
    IF THIS HOUSE COULD TALK -- Blog Post #31-- Cigar anyone?I bet a lot of people don’t know that the building across 10th Street from me once was the Pusch Cigar Factory. While tobacco wasn’t a d...
    If This House Could Talk -- Blog post #30 -- City of LightsWithin four months of the passage of Bill 86 in May 1888 by the Marysville City Council, Charles had electric lights installed here. Tha...
    If This House Could Talk - Blog Post #29 - I remember that there was quite a bit of excitement when the electric lights were turned on Saturday night, August 25, 1888. Over 3,000 ...
    If This House Could Talk -- Blog Post #28I am proud that I had electric lights before the White House and that Charles wasn’t afraid to touch the light switches like President B...
    If This House Could Talk -- Blog post #27 -- Ever Smalle... By the turn of the 20th century train travel was so much quicker. When Charles took a business trip to Kansas City in 1894, he left Mary...
    IF THIS HOUSE COULD TALK -- Blog Post # 26 -- Connected ... Trains enabled Charles and the family to travel away from Marysville. Rail travel was a part of milestone events in their lives. Charles...
    IF THIS HOUSE COULD TALK -- Blog Post #25 -- Trains A Wa... Long before there was Amazon, there was the train from St. Joe. When Charles needed an atomizer to treat his son Charlie’s sore throat f...