A Real-Life Dollhouse, By George! -- Miniature Mount Vernon On Display Here
BELLEVUE
No one will say George Washington slept at this Mount Vernon. He wouldn't fit.
His bedroom and furnishings, along with the rest of his house, are 1/12th the size of the original in his Virginia home.
This is Mount Vernon in miniature.
It can be seen at Bellevue's Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art. When the show closes April 30, the mini-mansion will become part of a traveling exhibit, "Mount Vernon's Treasures: George Washington Revealed."
After a yearlong tour to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Richmond, Va., the miniature will be permanently housed at Mount Vernon in Virginia. The miniature version is a gift to the keepers of Washington's home, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.
Officially you and I, as Washingtonians, were in on the present: It's from Washington state.
However, unless you're a miniature enthusiast, you probably haven't heard about it. The project hasn't received much publicity, says coordinator Jean Sprague of Seattle. Miniature collectors have watched it as a work in progress at Northwest shows.
And most of us didn't contribute to the anything-but-minuscule price tag of $500,000. No tax money went into the project. It was all done with private funds.
It began a few years ago when a friend suggested that Sprague, considered an expert in the world of miniature enthusiasts, build a miniature Mount Vernon.
"I decided it was a good idea and contacted Stan Ohman of Port
Orchard," Sprague said. "He's the best - there are no better.
"I told him I'd do the interior if he would make the shell."
That was in 1992. By 1994, Ohman had studied blueprints of Mount Vernon and made a trip to Virginia to take notes and measurements. It would take him more than 4,500 hours and five years to complete the 22-room house that required 16,000 shingles, 58 windows, eight exterior doors and 36 interior doors.
By that time Sprague had also convinced the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association that the Washington enthusiasts weren't just a group of ladies doing a dollhouse.
"As we kept making trips back there to measure things, to talk to the curator and volunteers," she said, "they became so convinced they're building a room at Mount Vernon to eventually hold the miniature version."
Sprague had hoped the interior furnishings - all miniature replicas of what is at Mount Vernon - could be made by Northwest artists. She abandoned that limitation, even going as far afield as England for a tiny harpsichord. (She paid $4,000 for the harpsichord. In 1793, Washington paid an equivalent of $452 for his, including shipping.)
Sprague recruited strangers, too.
Antonio Martinez, a visiting miniaturist, dropped in to see Sprague's extensive personal collection.
"I asked him if he carved," Sprague said. "He hadn't since high school, but he ended up making the 55 Windsor chairs."
Martinez also made a copy of Washington's famous library seat, a fan chair with an overhead paddle to cool the general during Virginia's hot months.
Sprague thinks people signed on to help because everyone felt the project was worthwhile. Supporters helped by underwriting rooms.
"Friends would say, `I'll do the bedroom or the dining room,' " she said.
The study-library was funded by Rosalie Whyel.
"I have to commend Rosie," Sprague said. "Rosie brought dolls to an art form, and she has recognized miniatures as another art form."
Even with worldwide contacts, Sprague knows of no other attempt to duplicate such a historic building as Mount Vernon in miniature. Those who participated used records and pictures of original pieces to create the interior furnishings, from a library desk made by internationally renowned artist Noral Olson to the needlepoint rug and hand-weaved dining-room chair covers by Pat Olson of Seattle.
The miniature contains everything from candles to working doorknobs.
King Laughlin, curator of the Virginia Mount Vernon, was at the doll museum installation last week.
"It amazes me how faithful this copy is to the original building," he said.
The building made by Ohman weighs more than 900 pounds and is 10 feet long, 8 1/2 feet high by 6 feet wide.
He did add some modern innovations, such as a half-horsepower motor that separates the roof from the shell and lowers walls so people can get a good look at the interior.
Sherry Grindeland's phone: 206-515-5633 or 425-453-2130, e-mail: sgri-new@seatimes.com. ------------------------------------------- Mount Vernon exhibit
Mount Vernon in Miniature on display through April 30 at the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art, 1116 108th Ave. N.E., Bellevue. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission: $6 for adults; $5.50 for seniors and $4 for children 5-17; under 5, free. Information: 425-455-1116.