The first Elbert Hubbard Museum was located in one large room in the East Aurora Village hall. It was made possible by the generosity of the Godfrey family. They purchased beautifully bound and illumined books and original manuscripts which formed the nucleus of the Elbert Hubbard Library museum. Soon Roycroft furniture, copper, and other related items were given to the Museum.
In 1985, Gladys ScheideMantel, at the age of 100 years, donated her house, a craftsman bungalow, to the Aurora Historical society.
The Hubbard Museum combined its acquisitions with the Roycroft collection of George and Gladys ScheideMantel, in the house they had built (1910) by Roycroft Craftsman. The garden contains a fountain base (The Magna Mater) sculptured by Catherine Maltwood and the Rix Jennings Memorial Bench.
The ScheideMantel house is forest green clapboard and shingle bungalow with a stone foundation cozy veranda. The interior has oak floors and chestnut woodwork. The woodwork is most striking in the splendid dining room with its' beamed ceiling and magnificently built sideboard of polished chestnut with squared glass doors, adorned with hand-crafted copper hardware. The original oak dining room furniture belonged to the ScheideMantels, as did the lighting fixture with its Steuben glass globes.
There is a handsome staircase leading to five bedrooms. One is kept as George ScheideMantel maintained it when he headed the Roycroft Leather Shop. It contains his leather working tools, patterns and some fine examples of his craftsmanship
