A House with a Special Provenance

An 1890s dollhouse deaccessioned from the New York State Museum and possibly from the Strong Museum

I’m sure many of you have stumbled on a dollhouse that caught your eye. You gaped at its beauty, dreaming of its spectacular structure. Pictured it in your home. Perhaps it was a French chateau or a grand Victorian. But the size. Oh, the size of it. 

So, you brought out your tape measure to see if it would fit in your hatchback and began working on the augmentative points you would share with your husband. “It will only take up half the basement, not the whole.” 

How many of us have been there? 

Well, me, for one, recently. I found the equivalent of a historic home with incredible provenance available for a song. 

I was “dream-scrolling” dollhouses as I do on Facebook Marketplace. Sometimes, I even set the location somewhere in the UK to look at all the Tudor houses for only about a hundred pounds. Unfortunately, I was searching in my locale when a house popped up.

I read the description and realized it had been removed from the New York State Museum. I immediately contacted the museum's curator, knowing her from a YouTube video that featured some of the museum’s finest dollhouse items. 

She said it was deaccessioned because the museum had acquired several other dollhouses with stronger provenances. Amazing! I confirmed that the house I was in love with had historical value, albeit lapsed. Then she shared an even better detail: The dollhouse was purchased at an auction of items owned by Margaret Woodbury Strong in 1977. 

Margaret Woodbury Strong is the woman who put “Strong” in the Strong Museum of Play. The museum is located in Rochester, NY, and is the world’s most extensive collection of dolls, toys, and games. 

Strong grew up an only child in a family of wealthy collectors who traveled the world.

“I was allowed to carry a small bag to put my dolls and toys in and to add anything I acquired on the trips. Consequently, my fondness for small objects grew.” 

A woman after our own hearts, right? 

Her predilection for acquiring small things led her to amass a huge collection. The size of it prompted her to add “two gallery-like wings to her 30-room suburban Rochester residence.” 

An article in the Rochester Times-Union reported, “These are only a few of the highlights of this stupendous collection which will soon be open to the children of Rochester and the general public.” 

Thus began the Strong Musem.

So you can understand my excitement when I discovered that the very house I was smitten with initially belonged to the collector of all collectors.

Equipped with a tape measure and my father, who can also have fanciful notions (his usually involves heavy machinery), I set out to the flea market where the house stood.

I couldn’t contain my excitement as I buzzed past the knickknacks and other collector flights of fancy, twisting and turning through the paths of what some may call junk.

There it was, standing majestically among the junk—an 1890s house. It was formidable. It stood on a sturdy base and had an air of an Arts and Crafts with its detailing. Real glass windows that someone had fashioned split with color glass above wrapped around from the front to the sides. William Morris would feel right at home.

The rooms were tricked out with what you imagine a sturdy historic home would have: baseboards, wood flooring, thick partitions, and even distinctly older wallpaper, all immaculately intact. Some curtains remained, with one or two lying on the floor. A split staircase was fashioned so that it led down to the front door, which was beginning to fall off its hinges. (This was the only weak point of the house I could find.) As people say, it had “good bones.” Actually, better than good bones, but far too large for storage in my little 1800s story and a half where I dwell in real life. 

I noticed the small serial number in the corner from its days in the New York State Museum, and then, to my surprise, I found another number! Does this mean it once stood in the Strong Museum? 

This thrilled me to my core, but I was still wrestling with its size and possible weight. Then my father stated the obvious: It's too big! I headed home with a heavy heart, knowing I couldn't make the Strong dollhouse my own. Driving, I thought to myself, this house deserves to be where it can be appreciated.

So here’s my challenge to all dollhouse enthusiasts and historians: Can you give this dollhouse a home?  The New York Museum curator also revealed another interesting fact: Margaret Woodbury Strong acquired it from Damariscotta, Maine. Hello, dollhouse collectors in New England! 

If you want to learn more about the Strong House and potentially adopt it, you can visit it at the Cobleskill Flea Market at 2922 NY Route 7, Howes Cave, NY. Additionally, if you wish to browse, you can find it on Facebook Marketplace.