in miniature

What is it about miniatures? After seeing creative bloggers in the I'm a Giant Challenge, I really started to think about this. Some of the more fantastic, true doll houses I've seen are the Miniature World of Faith Bradford at the Museum of American History

And in the Mobile Museum in Mobile, AL image

But it isn't the imaginary little people. It is the tiny architecture. Like this miniature New York University Club to 1/7 scale by Charles Matton. image

How about this English dining room circa 1770-90. A Thorne Miniature Room.

Source: janeaustensworld.wordpress.com via Ann on Pinterest

And a cursory search turns up the work of Erik Goddard.

And of course, there's the Miniature City Madurodam at the Hague in the Netherlands. image

For more miniature cities, read here! Bon weekend à vous!

unsinkable molly

I wanted to take advantage of being in Colorado since I'm kind of a historic house fan... obviously. I got to stop into the Molly Brown House, which was decked out for the anniversary of the Titanic.  Molly, being the unsinkable Margaret Brown. image

The house was built in the 1880s by architect William A. Lang for owners Isaac and Mary Large. The Brown's bought the house in 1884 and made very few changes, although one of which was adding gilt (yes, gilt...) floor to ceiling lincrusta/anaglypta to the entry hall and tile to the porch. In 1902, it was even the governor's mansion for the Governor of Colorado while their house was being remodeled. Photos by me.

 

 

The interior. No, I don't think I would want to move in but I enjoyed seeing it at any rate. image

 

  

 

 

  

Molly presenting a trophy cup award to Capt. Arthur Henry Rostron for his service in the rescue of the passengers on Titanic that sunk April 15, 1912. image

  I did tremendously enjoy the account of her insurance claim from the Titanic. The woman knows how to travel. ref

ouray

As I mentioned, one of the places I wanted to explore on this trip was the home of Thomas Walsh and his family. Where they went from this, image

to this, image and ref

thanks to this, the Camp Bird Mine.

The most enduring base of operations for these fellow nomads was Ouray, Colorado, or Switzerland of America in this tiny box canyon. The town was unofficially started as a prospecting camp in 1875 and incorporated in 1884. Denver & Rio Grande Railway arrived in Ouray on December 21, 1887. However if you wanted to continue onto Silverton, you had to take the now-called Million Dollar Highway by coach. Believe me scary in a car, very scary as one could imagine by stagecoach. So here are a few snapshots from around town. ref

redstone castle

Despite having skied in Colorado many times before, my husband says that even from a young age he's wanted to explore some of the old towns and sites around Aspen. We finally got to do that on this trip. Colorado is just a beautiful state and Redstone Castle is just one of the interesting places we visited.

Redstone, Colorado was created as a working village in industrial paternalism, much like the Ford Motor Company had established in Detroit. It was founded in 19th century industrialist John Cleveland Osgood as a coal mining town. He constructed 84 cottages and a 40-room inn, all with modern amenities, for his coal miners and cokers. The houses are very similar to craftsman houses with swiss styling.

The most prominent house in this tiny town is the Tudor-style Cleveholm Manor, also known as "Redstone Castle" which consists of 42-rooms. Osgood built the house for his second wife, Swedish Countess Alma Regina Shelgrem. If memory serves, Osgood founded Colorado Fuel Company which was later bought out by the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Coal and Iron Company to form the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company.
A few exterior details.

Images from here, here, here, and luckily here as the current owners are gracious enough to share photos from the property, soon to be hotel/spa.