In 1924 my grandfather made a dollhouse for his only daughter, my mother, for her fifth birthday. He used a wooden packing case to build a doll’s house with four rooms, each with a glass window, meticulously crafted wooden stairs, and a bathroom upstairs with a door on tiny hinges. To that was added a pitched roof. This was in Johannesburg.
Over time, the dollhouse was sent by rail to cousins in the Karoo where it resided until I was about five years old. My mother decided it was time for the doll house to ‘come home’, which it did from Aberdeen in the Karoo to the Sheba siding in the then Eastern Transvaal.
While I was at university, my parents moved to live at our farm permanently and the doll house moved to the De Kaap Valley and was played with by all the grandchildren who visited them there.
At last, I had a daughter. So, in due course, we loaded the doll house onto our truck and brought it down to the Eastern Cape. Here it was also well used by my grandchildren.
Then … my daughter had a daughter … and we loaded the doll house onto our truck and took it all the way to Cape Town …
… Not bad for a doll house made from a packing case 98 years ago!
Something Over Tea 
I hope you will have a big celebration ‘birthday’ in two years time. I think it deserves it – including a toast to your grandfather of course!
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What an EXCELLENT idea!
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What a great (peripatetic) heirloom!
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We have all had great fun with it 🙂
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👌
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This is absolutely amazing, Anne!!!!! I also had one thet was passed on between the girl-children of our families.
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That is such a lovely thought.
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That…🙉🙈🤗
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What a wonderful heirloom and legacy! I hope you record its history to go with the house as it goes into the future so it is not forgotten.
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This is important, yes. I love the fact that it has survived for so long.
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Dit is puik vakmanskap wat so stewig gebou het – ‘n kosbare erfenis.
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Dankie. Dit IS ‘n kosbare erfenis en ek is so bly dat so baie van ons hiermee lekker gespeel het oor die laaste 98 jare.
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I built one for my first granddaughter from a kit. I had hardly started its construction when my daughter called and said they had bought her one. I stopped work on the kit and stored it in a closet. Several years later, when my second granddaughter (different daughter) got old enough, I finished building it and gave it to her for Christmas. I don’t think that one will last nearly as long as yours did!
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What fun she must have had with it though 🙂 🙂
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That is what you might call a mobile home.
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Indeed, it has moved to various destinations in its time 🙂
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A house to treasure. Lovely story, Anne!
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Thank you very much, Belinda.
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What a wonderful house-story! How many ‘house owners’ did your grandfather see? Credit also goes to the family who have all taken such good care of it through the years. I look forward to your post about the 100 year old house. 😀
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He would have seen my mother, her various cousins and me. I like the idea of celebrating its centenary.
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What a treasure!! A precious heirloom. I always wanted a doll house when I was young. I sort of treat our house as a doll house, at least I did so when I was younger. I love to move furniture around from place to place, room to room. Change out and rearrange knick knacks.
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Thank you for this contribution, Lisa.
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An heirloom of immeasurable value indeed!
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With all the girls mentioned in this tale – from my mother to its current ‘owner’ – being only daughters with brothers, rest assured that this house has been used for all sorts of things: a parking garage, housed a rock collection, as a home for dinosaurs … The wonderful thing about it is that it is handmade out of whatever was around at the time 🙂
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It speaks of the love and care of a family over many generations!
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With his own daughters having enjoyed the use of it, my eldest son refurbished it before it was passed on to my youngest granddaughter 🙂
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And I’m sure she’s going to cherish it until it is time to hand it over to the next generation.
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It says a lot for his workmanship and the material of that time. It’s a real heirloom!
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It certainly has become one. Thank you, Jaya.
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I love dolls’ houses – this must mean so much to you.
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Oh it does and I simply love seeing it give another generation as much pleasure as it gave me 🙂
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What a truly marvellous heirloom. He made it well
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He certainly did, yet might have been surprised to find how much pleasure it has given for so many years.
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This is very special and a miracle and good packaging with all the travelling throughout South-Africa.
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It is a robust doll house – the packing cases then were very sturdy indeed.
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What a beautiful tradition he started, I wish he would know. Being handed (or transported) from generation to generation. Love it. Thank you for sharing.
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I am so pleased you appreciate this.
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He obviously made it well and it is a marvellous heirloom. I hope many more generations get to play with it.
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I hope doll houses will never go out of fashion!
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What a beautiful legacy!
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It is and has brought many children a lot of pleasure. Thank you.
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It is so amazing that it was passed down to all the generations and that it is still looking so good!
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My eldest son fixed the stairs and repainted it before the house was passed on to our youngest granddaughter 🙂
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That’s great ☺️
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An amazing story and like we often say these days “they don’t build them like they used to” … that usually applies to manufactured items, not items fashioned with love and made from scratch.
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Thank you very much, Linda.
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Ninety-eight years! Amazing. The stories the doll house could tell! 🙂
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I often think about that.
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