Upstairs Tour with Petty's Daughters

What happens here

Richard Petty's daughters lead a separate tour of the upstairs, offering additional perspectives and historical details. They show the rooms that were once living spaces for multiple generations of the Petty and Toomes families, including where Richard Petty was born. They also point out a unique pulley system in a closet, used to raise and lower a crossbar on an upstairs door to deter revenue agents during Prohibition. One of the daughters shares that their grandmother, Richard Petty's mother, made her own wedding dress. They emphasize that the house remains very much as it was, with original walls, floors, and light fixtures. The girls explain the use of a large floor vent, known as a 'heat riser', in the dining room ceiling. In the winter, it was left open to allow heat from the downstairs heater to rise and warm the upstairs bedrooms. In the summer, it was closed to keep the heat out. They mention that their parents moved upstairs when they first got married, using one room as a living room and another as a bedroom, and that their father (Richard Petty) cut the hole in the floor for the heat riser. They also explain that the house had electricity but no indoor plumbing until much later.

Goal: Showcase the upstairs rooms, family history, and unique features of the house.