original meeting house. Many of the furnishings in the stately
home are also antiques. While each com- mander brings some personal furniture and other furnishings come from a mili- tary warehouse, many items are always on display like the wooden secretary, two ornate mirrors, the heavy Omar Bradley couch with eight legs and the dining room table that seats 18. Some of the items on the wall also remain, such as the photo- graphs of the 52 commanders who have lived in Riverside. Portraits of famous gen- erals, like Patton, Eisenhower and Bradley, also adorn the walls. Te Browns added paintings by his mother of how she imag- ined Riverside must have looked during its early years. Each resident has left something behind
for their successors to enjoy like the ladder in the library left by Maj. Gen. Ken Leuer and the stained glass Maj. Gen. Michael Ferriter contributed. Taking care of the home is something
The formal dining room with a table that seats 18, is dominated by a European chandelier. One of the stories passed down from resident to resident is that a general sent his aide to Europe to get a chandelier. When someone found out about the trip, the aide was fired.
all of its residents take seriously. “You feel like a caretaker. Te joke is you don’t want to be the one who burns down Riverside,” said Mrs. Brown. She recounted that one of her predecessors; Margie Ferriter didn’t light a single candle while there for fear of a fire. Another first lady, Candy Woj- dakowski recalls her husband averted a disaster when he kept the huge chandelier in the dining room from crashing to the floor. Maintenance workers discovered it was only being held up by one wire. Tere are other tales, passed down
from one first lady to another. Accord- ing to one story, marbles were placed in the guest bathroom medicine cabinet and during one reception they were released by snoopy visitors several times. Among the ghost stories shared, is one about the blue settee that is usually kept under the stairs in the music room. Caretakers would smooth out the cushion and in the morn- ing it would be dimpled like someone had been sitting there. Although Brown saw no ghostly apparitions, she said creaking would wake the dogs up. New residents, Maj. Gen. Herbert
McMaster and his family have now moved in and Brown knows they, too, will enjoy Riverside. “It’s a humbling experience to live here. Knowing who has lived here prior makes you very proud,” she said. C
10 Columbus and the Valley August 2012
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