This Old (Doll) House

We have a room in our house. A special room. A room we refer to as the antique room. What makes it so special is every piece of furniture in the room has a story, a family story from long ago. I love to read in this room in the afternoon. The brilliant sunlight warms my soul as I escape away to somewhere else.

But this room, this special room I speak about, also has another name.

The doll house room.

The doll house room houses two doll houses that are near and dear to my heart. One is mine and one is my daughter’s. You can read about it here.

My Doll House

My doll house was actually my grandmother’s doll house. It was hers when she was a little girl. My grandmother will turn 90 this year and the doll house, well, she estimates that the doll house is about 80 years old!

She says she doesn’t remember much about it, but she did have a few memories to share. It was hand-made in the late 1930s, early 1940s. My grandmother believes she was around 10 years old when she received it as a Christmas gift. She remembers going to the doll house maker’s to pick up the doll house and she remembers her mother was with her. This seemed to be a powerful memory because her mother died shortly there after. She wonders how much the doll house cost because she said they were so poor.

One memory that made her smile was that she remembers her cat, Tiger Tom, lying on the side porch and crawling through the rooms of the doll house. She speculates that after she married, the doll house traveled with her, my grandfather, and my mother as they moved up and down the east coast.  It’s been to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York City, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. My mother, on the other hand, does not remember the doll house traveling with them. She believes that perhaps the doll house stayed in the attic of my great-grandmother’s house.

side porch

As a child I remember sitting and playing with it for hours. I would rearrange the furniture again and again. Today the doll house is a magnet for little fingers that seems to be pulled toward it. Little ones can’t resist opening and closing the doors and moving the furniture.

back view

inside

It’s one my bucket list to someday renovate this old (doll) house. But for now, this old (doll) house sits in my house, the antique room, the doll house room.

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Slice of Life

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