Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
Historic Treasure of the Week -
January 13, 2001
By Barbara Carney
Vigo County Historical Society
Doll house not for play, but for admiration
There’s a new arrival in the Vigo County Historical Museum nursery and everyone’s excited! No, we’re not cooing about a baby, but a doll house!
In the early 1970s, Pete Fagg built a doll house from a pattern his wife, Helen, had seen in one of the doll magazines she subscribed to. The wooden structure is 48 inches tall from the floor to the peak in the roof. It is 15 inches wide and has four floors, with each floor comprising a room. There is a kitchen, living room and bedroom, and the attic room is a bath. Helen called it the “tall villa.”
The outside is painted white with a deep pink door and pink and white striped awnings at each window. The roof is yellow and made of a corrugated material that also was ordered from a doll magazine.
Inside, the rooms are wallpapered and the windows covered with drapes or curtains. Each room has a hanging chandelier, some made from beads by Helen and her daughter, Linda Harden.
Decorating the “villa” became a labor of love for Helen. The furnishings of the doll house are delightful. All of Japanese porcelain or ceramic, they are period pieces and collected little by little as she traveled. In the bedroom, a porcelain mother holds her baby, while a china father reads a book. An elaborate gold clock adorns the mantle in the living room. Delicate chairs, tables, settees and ornamental objects complete each room. Definitely not a child’s plaything, the doll house is to be looked at and admired.
When Helen Fagg passed away last year, the doll house was purchased at an auction by Barbara and George Manhart, who gave it to the museum. An ardent doll collector, Helen also was a devoted museum volunteer and a writer of Historical Treasure articles. Though the doll house is charming in itself, reminders of its owner makes it special to those who knew her.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Web site: http://web.indstate.edu/community/vchs.