July 2011 - Custom Built Dollhouse
Custom Built Dollhouse
Today, most children’s toys are mass-produced contraptions that are sold in every supermarket and toy store in the country. It is rare to find the one- of-a-kind toy anymore, but that is exactly what the Collections Department found in this month’s spotlighted artifact. In April, we received a call from Elaine Moore of Sioux Falls; she had her childhood dollhouse, and she wanted to donate it to the museum. After listening to her description of the dollhouse, we knew it was a truly rare find. Elaine’s dollhouse was built by her father, Charles Ellis, and was a miniature version of the house she grew up in on South Covell Avenue. Her father was a teacher at the South Dakota School for the Deaf and a very skilled woodworker and artist. The inside of the dollhouse has a similar layout to the house that the Ellis family lived in for over fifty years.
