Dutch Colonial House 1780

This house is an American colonial set in New York in 1780 and was built from 1990 to 2000. My mother has fine art and design degrees from Stanford and Parsons and created a series of historical dollhouses in her later years, which were displayed in several art galleries.

The brick was laid by hand with flat clay bricks glued to the side of the house and mortared. My mother especially enjoyed laying miniature brick and also made several patios. She remembers her source as “a man in St. Paul who liked to make bricks.” Elaborate brick patterns like these were common on the homes of wealthy colonial Americans.

The house shell was purchased from Ah Miniatures! in Minneapolis, owned by the “Alice and Chuck” in the following excerpt from my mother’s gallery notes:

This house was inspired by my reading about Jefferson and Adams in the past few years. This last house was once again a reject in Alice and Chuck’s basement. I liked it because it had a door at the end and the interesting stairway design. I sawed off the rafters, added the doors and built the chimney out of balsa wood. It features more of Cindy Malone’s beautiful furniture and lots of weaving. I had hoped to find a loom but settled for a spinning wheel and a half-tester bed from Scotland. “Weevings” from Vermont made the rugs. The plates on the mantel are from Stokes from England, and the dinner plates are by Elizabeth Chambers. Marlys Sellers dressed the dolls.

For a post on men’s fashion in the colonial house, click here — Men’s Fashion

Photos by Karen Nyenhuis. Dollhouse from a family collection.