My Doll House

Antique Dollhouse

This is my dollhouse, an 1880’s style house handmade by a finish carpenter in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1906. The carpenter was Jim Tobin, who married my grandmother after my grandfather died. The dollhouse was made for my mother and her sisters and given to me by my aunt Sue. We brought it to Pittsburgh in 1965, shortly after my daughter Elaine was born, and began to restore it and add furnishings. The dollhouse is typical of houses of this period. Notice the similarity to the house painted by Edward Hopper in the 1920’s titled, Anderson’s House, Gloucester. This stately yellow Italianate house can be found in Gloucester today, just up Western Avenue from Stacy Boulevard.