Incredible Workmanship in the Reconstruction of a c. 1847 Mansion

For the last seven years there is an old stone mansion near us that has been in the local news and, currently, in the process of being renovated.  

Why was it in the local news?  Well, it started with the old stone mansion being torn down and sold and replaced with several new houses.  

It was such a shame as this old stone mansion was built in 1847 and had quite the history associated with it regarding the town and even one of the presidents.

In 2014 a group of teenagers heard about this old mansion being torn down and decided to do something about it.  They decided to protest the demolition of the mansion and used all their social media skills to help them with protesting it.  

They created signs and stood outside the mansion waving their signs for motorists passing by, created online petitions, and posted where ever they could online to educate the community about what was going on with the demolish of this mansion and why it shouldn't be demolished.

Their efforts quickly spread throughout the community and many residents joined in on the protest.

Well, as you can imagine, several weeks into the protest the current owner changed his mind and decided not to sell the property.  After that several groups concerned with historic preservation got involved with the end result being the residents approving utilizing funds to help preserve the mansion at their town meeting.

In 2016 after weeks of discussions the owner and town had an agreement on preserving the mansion and renovating it.

So, for the last few years we have been watching the meticulous and amazing process of renovating this historic property.  Every day we drive by it and marvel at the workmanship involved with creating this unbelievable mansion to it's original glory.  The stone and masonry work involved has been nothing short of astonishing.

The mansion was registered with the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 1999 and, according to the Friends of the Burnett-Garfield House, which worked with the owner and the town to preserve this old mansion, it is considered a historic property for many reasons.

 If you're interested in reading about why this house is considered historic please visit their Friends of the Burnett-Garfield House Facebook page.

Well, this past spring when my husband and I were driving by and marveling at the workmanship I decided to take some pictures as I found all of the renovations remarkable and thought you all might agree.

To put all of this in perspective you first need to see how the old mansion looked before they started renovating it.  

The property consisted of the old stone mansion, a carriage house, a chapel, and a summer house - all of which would be renovated.

The picture at the beginning of this post shows the renovated chapel, mansion being renovated and part of the carriage house being renovated.

The Paper Doll Swap - My Rosalinda

In May of this year Hally Levesque, who is an extraordinary artist and whom I've taken several doll classes from at Artful Gathering, asked me if I wanted to participate in a paper doll swap.  

I had never done an online swap before, let alone a paper doll swap.  In fact, I had never made a paper art doll before.  

As my bucket list contains trying every craft out there in my lifetime, if at all possible, this would provide me with the challenge of creating a paper doll - something I'd never done before.  So, I said I'd be thrilled to participate in a paper doll swap.  

In order to make it easier for all of us to communicate Hally set-up a private "The Progressive Paper Doll Party" group on Facebook.  

The theme for this paper doll swap was "Life is a Cabaret."  Here's what Hally said, "The global pandemic has really done a number on us,not to mention the many other things going on in the world.  We are probably all looking forward to shedding our cares and woes.  So let's take off our masks, kick up our heels and have some fun at The Paper Doll Cabaret."

With cabaret as a theme I knew this was going to be a challenge for me.  As mentioned above, I had never created a paper doll before, let alone one of my own designs. 

No matter what kind of doll I make they always have an opinion on what they should be and my "paper dollie" decided she was going to be Victorian, no matter what.  I had no choice but to accede to her wishes.

So, I thought about what I wanted to do and decided to go with an articulated paper doll with moveable arms, legs, and head.  I wanted her to appear to be kicking one leg up under her Victorian costume so she definitely had to be moveable even after her costume was applied. And, I wanted her holding a fan and a sign.

My Victorian Conservatory and How I Put It Together

 

For most of my life I have wanted to build a Victorian dollhouse.  As far as I was concerned the more Victorian and ornate the better.  I wanted to build everything in the dollhouse from the Queen Anne furniture to the traditional Victorian furnishings.

I was not naïve as to how much work was involved, or so I thought.  I knew it would be a LOT of work starting from the wood kits to the adding of all the embellishments like the wallpaper, buildable furniture, floors, rugs, lighting, ceilings, and all the accessories associated with a dollhouse.  

I wanted everything to be handmade.

Well, time definitely gets ahead of you the older you get and over the years life kept happening.  I never did build my dream dollhouse.  Well, here I was at 67 years of age, in the in the middle of a Covid pandemic and thinking about building that dollhouse.  

You might be wondering - why now? Well, as it happens in April 2021 I saw a June 2016 blog post by Laura Carlson on the Alpha Stamps Blog entitled "Miniature Victorian Conservatory!" 

I was intrigued by this and thought it might be a good introduction into miniatures and a good example as to what was involved with creating a doll house which I knew would be much more elaborate and time consuming than a Victorian conservatory.

I was drawn to this conservatory as it was Victorian and involved plants, which I also happen to love and thought it would be perfect in my sunroom.

I decided to research what supplies were needed and started with the Alpha Stamps website to see what was available now.  Keep in mind the blog post was written in 2016 and it was now 5 years later so I wasn't sure what supplies were still available.

Well, to my delight the conservatory itself was still available in laser-cut 3D chipboard, as was a platform foundation of laser-cut 3D chipboard.  I was thrilled.