Isabel’s Doll House

Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: December - 2022

Today’s doll houses evolved from 16th-century “baby houses,” wooden cabinets in which wealthy European women displayed their collections of hand-crafted miniatures fashioned of the finest wood, fabric, and metals. Baby houses were a chic fascination for grown-ups, not children.

Over the centuries doll houses shifted into a teaching tool. They helped girls (and occasionally their brothers), as they grew up, learn how to care for a home. Arranging furnishings, moving family members here and there, making conversation as they went, was not only fun, but intrinsic to social interaction/training. 

It was Christmas, 1935 when four-year-old Isabel Chambers received her first doll house: a Southern, two-story, six-room mansion. Her younger brother got a train that same Christmas. He circled his train track around the dollhouse. The train would take guests to-and-from the Hall House, named after their grandparent’s inn.

“In my continuing design of the interior of my dollhouse, there are several miniatures I treasure above others: a Duncan Phyfe sofa from FAO Schwarz gotten on my way to Dartmouth’s Winter Carnival, when (husband) Tony proposed; a kitchen table for pastries bought on a Danube cruise; and a stove I made myself. Spools painted black were stovepipes, and nickels served as burners,” says Isabel.  

Decorating her mini-domicile for Christmas was a favorite annual event. She festooned bottle-brush trees with sparkles and snow. A feather tree was adorned with teeny-tiny candy canes made from red-and-white radio wire. Ornaments were beads. Lights went around the sides and wreaths adorned every window.

There were three fireplaces, double chimneys, and columns across the front. Fireplaces and some furniture were original, some Isabel made, and some she bought through the years. She built a greenhouse out of a glass letter box and filled it with colorful flowers year-round. Its floor was covered in poppy seed, imitating soil. 

At Christmas, on the rooftop, reindeer posed. Santa observed from his sleigh. Isabel says, “It was really fun. When kids came to see it, they could look, but noooo touching.”

When Isabel received her doll house, the future Queen Elizabeth was a Princess. Isabel says, “My son, Tom, gave me a Queen Elizabeth doll, and with her solar-powered purse, she sets her royal hand in motion.

After Isabel was grown and married, the dollhouse took up residence in the office attic. She had three boys, and they showed no interest in a dollhouse. 

Ten years ago, she reawakened her childhood joy. With the help of her youngest son, Tim, they did some updating: a new roof, fireplace repair, landscape re-do, and more. 

“The doll house has been a wonderful thing to help me stop thinking about problems and put my mind to something else,” says Isabel. “And for kids everywhere, and of all ages, a doll house helps them make sense of the world. We could all use some of that these days.”