My great grandfather Theron Durham built this dollhouse around 1895 for my grandmother. She gave it to my mother and aunt to play with. I received it from my mother and gave it to my daughter. Now it belongs to my granddaughter. This is the front which serves as the back for the four rooms on the other side. Over the years it has been furnished by different little girls to suit their tastes. I overhauled it before it went to my granddaughter, actually taking a bit of the cream paint to a store to exactly match the original color.

The house is resting on what was the kitchen table from my grandparents’ house in Pike, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. It wobbles a bit, but forms an apt perch for my grandmother’s little house. The house itself has held up remarkably well since it has traveled from Buffalo to Portland to Connecticut without breaking. Though Theron was a lawyer, he seems to have known a little about building to last.

The dollhouse takes an important center role when I write tomorrow about the house I now live in. Stay tuned!