LIVERMORE – Tour plans are in the works for the second and third week of June, though no one will be allowed in the mansion at the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, Director Nancey Drinkwine said Wednesday.

The tours offer an interpretation from the perspective of the Washburn family, who lost their cape-style home known as Boyscroft in June 1867 to a fire back then.

Within three days of that fire plans to reconstruct had been launched, Drinkwine said.

The Washburn brothers, there were seven of them, paid to have the 17-room mansion built on the same footprint so that their father, Israel Washburn Sr., would have a place to live by fall and their families could come back to visit, Drinkwine said.

The tours will be from the perspective of what was said back then, what their reactions were and what plans they put in place, she said.

The Washburn family kept detailed records in a journal of the goings-on. Each family that visited wrote in it, Drinkwine said.

The house was up in November of that year, she said, and though the interior wasn’t finished, they were able to live in it.

Three buildings are needed for the Meal, Laugh and Learn bus tours, Drinkwine said.

The school house and the library remain but the farmer’s cottage is gone, she said.

“We’re exploring an off-site location to offer the meal,” she said.