Doll Houses Preserve Memories
BY BARBARA MILLER
Lycoming Co. Correspondent
LACEYVILLE Most people
take photographs to preserve
memories, not Ruth Pickett—she
makes doll houses.
“I wanted to hold these memo
ries,” Ruth says as she glanced
around her dollhouse museum that
features miniature replicas of past
homes and furnishings. The
museum houses approximately 14
of Ruth’s dollhouses and matching
sized furniture made over the past
30 years.
Ruth has been featured on local
television and in local papers sev
eral times with her doll houses. In
addition, she has published a child
ren’s book using photographs of
old dolls to illustrate the stay.
According to Ruth, many of her
dollhouses have connections with
her past, while others such as her
Shoe dollhouse are based on story
book characters or pure whimsy.
The remainder are ordinary
dollhouses.
Although Ruth still constructs
dollhouses to sell, her main inter
est is creating additional memory
and story book dollhouses for her
museum.
One of the finest examples of
Ruth’s workmanship is the replica
of the Fox Hollow School near
Mehoopany in the late 1800’s.
Ruth’s grandmothers, Eva Mae
Preston and Georgeanna Strong,
both taught at the one-room
school. From the bell on top of the
school to the tiny clock on the wall
and the teacher with twelve stu
dents, the school is as exact in
detail as Ruth could make it.
Another interesting example of
dollhouses originating from
Ruth’s past is “The Loom Room.”
In the room an older woman is sea
ted at a loom weaving strips of rags
into rugs, a little girl sits in the cor
ner winding a ball of rags.
Ruth explains that the older
woman portrays her great grandma
Preston who at one time loomed
rugs from rags in a room attached
to the house in which Ruth lives
today. The little girl represents
Ruth’s mother.
A replica of Santa’s Workshop complete, Ruth says, with
two elves above, “goofing off.”
Ruth’s Doll Furniture Store.
Ruth Pickett keeps the past alive by recreating scenes
from long ago. Here, she crafted sleighs to add to the out-
door scene around one of her doll houses.
With the help of her mother’s
recollections, Ruth constructed the
room and completed it with a mini
ature working loom. During that
time, Ruth’s great grandma Pre
ston sold rag rugs for 10-cents a
yard.
Proudly, Ruth relates that the
land where she lives has been in
the family for four generations.
“My great-great-grandmother
(Lucena Woodruff) bought this
(33 acres) about nine days after the
end of the Civil War. Her husband
had died in Petersburg, Virginia.
She had five children. She was
very courageous.”
When Ruth’s father, Raymond
Inman, married Ruth’s mother,
Alice, he bought five-acres of the
original homestead from Lucena’s
daughter, who was Ruth’s great
grandmother.
Ruth’s rich personal past serves
as a storehouse from which she
extracts not only ideas for her doll
houses, but also other creations
like horse drawn sleighs carved
from wood. A miniature red and
green buckboard wagon brings
back memories to Ruth when at
age six she accompanied her
grandpa in a similar wagon to visit
relatives in Vestal Center, New
York. She recalls the candy and
♦ * 9
soda pop they purchased.
“I have very vivid, wonderful
memories and I wouldn’t trade
them for anything,” she exclaims.
Ruth invokes an air of nostalgia
with her story book dollhouses.
Her version of Goldilocks and the
Three Bears is one in which the
main characters are housed, suit
ably enough, in a charming, tiny,
log cabin.
The Old Lady Who Lived in a
Shoe doll house is a favorite with
all age groups. The blue shoe con
tains not an old lady with a multi
tude of children as one would
expect, but a family of five mice.
‘The children grew up and she
sold the place to mice,” Ruth
explains as she grins
mischievously.
On the bottom floor of the shoe
doll house, Mr. and Mrs. Mouse
are getting ready for an evening on
the town. Mr. Mouse is sporting a
tuxedo and on the kitchen table,
lay leftovers from supper, a loaf of
bread and a cake of cheese. In the
upper story the three little mice are
preparing to go to sleep in their
three-tiered bunk bed.
Concerning the more traditional
dollhouses, Ruth reports, she just
completed one the proper size for
Barbie dolls.
Other doll houses displayed in
Ruth’s museum are an old general
store complete with mail in the
miniscule postal slots, a turn of the
century four floor boarding house,
a gypsy wagon, Santa’s Work
shop, a tea room, and an old west
ern store and barroom completed
by her brother, Ray Inman.
Although Ruth constructs doll
houses and furniture because, “I
love working with wood,” she
adds that it all started with an old
German bisque doll in a red dress
given to her as a gift in the late
40’s.
Failing at all efforts to buy a
rocker of that period for the doll,
Ruth made one in her father’s
workshop.
After that, Ruth says, “Things
just kind of snowballed.”
In 1958 she opened a store at the
present location across the road
from her home. Since then, Ruth
has been making dollhouses and
working parttime in a local bank.
Both Ruth’s father and husband
died at relatively young ages and
she and her mother lived together
in her house for a number of years.
Her mother died four years ago,
bi\t Ruth remains grateful that her
doll house hobby allowed her to
spend more time with her mother.
Ruth spends much of her time in
a big workshop dotted with several
kinds of saws, a drill press, planer,
and a big pot bellied stove. “I live
out here,” she joked.
(Turn to Pago 816)
See your nearest
' ISEW HOLLAND
Dealer for Dependable
Equipment and Dependable
Service:
Annvllle, PA
B.H.M Farm
Equipment, Inc.
R.D 1
717-867-2211
Beavertown, PA
B&R Farm
Equipment, Inc
RO 1. Box 217 A
717-658-7024
Belleville, PA
Ivan J. Zook
Farm Equipment
Belleville, Pa
717-935-2948
Canton, PA
Hess Farm Equipment
717-673-5143
Carlisle, PA
Paul Shovers, Inc.
35 East Willow Street
717-243-2686
Chambaraburg, PA
Clugston
Implement, Inc.
R.D. 1
717-263-4103
Davldsburg, PA
George N. Gross, Inc
R.D. 2, Dover, PA
717-292-1673
Elizabethtown, PA
Messick Farm
Equipment, Inc
Rt. 283 - Rheem's Exit
717-367-1319
Gettysburg, PA
Yingling Implements,
Inc.
3291 Taneytown Rd.
717-359-4848
Graancaslla, PA
Meyers
Implement's Inc.
400 N Antrim Way
P.O. Box 97
717-597-2176
Halifax, PA
Swaigard Bros.
R.D. 3, Box 13
717-896-3414
Hamburg, PA
Shartlesville
Farm Service
R.D. 1, Box 1392
215-488-1025
Hanover, PA
Sheets Brothers, Inc
1061 Carlisle St.
Hanover, PA 17331
7T7-632-3660
Honey Brook, PA
Dependable Motor Co
East Main Street
215-273-3131
215-273-3737
Honey Grove, PA
Norman D Clark
& Son, Inc
Honey Grove, PA
717-734-3682
Hugheeville, PA
Farnsworth Farm
Supplies, Inc.
103 Cemetery Street
717-584-2106
Lebanon, PA
Keller Bros.
Tractor Co.
RD 7, Box 405
717-949-6501
Loyeville, PA
Paul Shovers, Inc.
Loysville, PA
717-789-3117
Lynnport, PA
Kermit K. Kistler, Inc.
Lynnport, PA
215-298-2011
Mill Hall, PA
Dotterer Equip
RD #3
717-726-3471
New Holland, PA
A.B.C. Groff, Inc.
110 South Railroad
717-354-4191
New Park, PA
M&R Equipment Inc
P.O. Box 16
717-993-2511
Oley, PA
C.J. Wonsidler Bros
R.D 2
215-987-6257
Pitman, PA
Marlin W. Schreffler
Pitman, PA
717-648-1120
Quakertown, PA
C.J. Wonsidler Bros
R.D. 1
215-536-1935
Quarryville, PA
C.E. Wiley & Son, Inc.
101 South Lime Street
717-786-2895
fllngtown, PA
Ringtown Farm
Equipment
Ringtown, PA
717-889-3184
Tamaqua, PA
Charles S Snyder, Inc
R.D. 3
717-386-5954
West Grove, PA
S.G. Lewis & Son, Inc.
R.D. 2, Box 66
215-869-2214
Churchvllle, MD
Walter G. Coale, Inc.
2849-53
Churchville Rd.
301-734-7722
Frederick, MD
Ceresville
Ford New Holland, Inc
Rt 26 East
301-662-4197
Outside MD,
800-331-9122
Washington, NJ
Frank Rymon & Sons
201-689-1464
Woodstown, NJ
Owen Supply Co
Broad Street &
East Avenue
609-769-0308