Well, I made an interesting eBay purchase, and drove from St. Paul, MN, to Brookings, SD, yesterday to pick it up. I’m told that it is a carpenter’s teaching model for home construction. It’s perhaps 24 inches on a side, one story high, has clapboards on the outside, and shows all the framing on the inside and under the floor. The roof is hinged and lifts to show the rafter framing.
The seller says she got it from someone in the Cleveland area within the past year. It supposedly was made by an Amish craftsman, probably for use in a vocational school or high school vocational program. The name A. Marchand is written on the base. Anyone know how old this might be? I’m told 50-60 years; this seems reasonable, but I have no way to check.
Any ideas? It’s very cool. I have no specific plans for it, beyond re-attaching the hinges (we removed the roof to fit it into my car, which probably wasn’t necessary) and putting some kind of roofing on it. The seller said it had paper or cardboard shingles, which she soaked off.
Ellen
Replies
I'm sure everyone would like to see a picture if you can.
A freind of mine has something very similiar to what you describe that he built while in trade school in his teens.
Eric
I'll post pictures soon. Right now, we're having a dandy storm and I don't think I'll head out to the garage with the camera! Tomorrow evening, if I can.
Ellen
My dad was a high school industrial arts teacher for many years in southern Minnesota; he had several of those miniature houses sitting up on the shelf in the shop at school that had been built by his carpentry classes over the years. I suppose the oldest one had been built in the late 40s or early 50s. Sure wish I'd had a chance to get one, it would be neat to have now.
Build one. All it takes is time. You could put in all the neat stuff that didn't exist or wasn't widely used 50 years ago, like roof trusses, I-joists, PEX, vinyl siding.
Curiosity is getting the best of me, got an e-bay no.
Doug
I built a model house in trade school. It was 1/6 scale, framing only.
It was a pain making birdsmouth cuts that were 3/8" square and installing studs that were 1/4" thick.
I have pictures but the model was demolished at the end of our semester.
Jon Blakemore
I remember Junior year of highschool in Mech. Drawing III.
Somehow our schedules didnt jive and instead of being in class with the other MDIII's my best growing up buddy and I got placed together in with the Mech DrawingII class.
As MDIII students we were pretty much left alone and to our own devices. Not a good thing.
The year long big project was to build a model house as described. We screwed around until the night before and in order to pass we made a quickie out of cardboard. Roar.
But there was one team who made one worse. They'd drove spikes into plywood for corner posts and rolled out toilet paper for the walls.
Sad but true.
Hey, where's the pictures you promised?
Sorry, Doug and all...
I went out to take pictures last night and the camera batteries were dead. All set now, so here you go. Anybody know this A. Marchand? The name is on all four sides of the sill. Anybody know the age of this?
Ellen
Thanks for the pictures!
Looks cool, looks like its to scale.
Not sure what it could be, maybe what some of the others sugested in earlier posts.
None the less you got a good conversation piece.
Doug
Doug, you're from as close to the Amana colonies as anyone here.... Headed back to Iowa anytime soon?
Maybe the Marchand family could be found in Worldpages.com or something similar.Something is what it does.
I just started a different job about 3 weeks ago so I doubt I'll be going until x-mas.
I own a house in the Amanas, my mom lives in it, but I dont know what that has to do with this? Am I missing something? Have to go back and re-read all posts.
Doug
Joe
supposedly was made by an Amish craftsman,
Is this what your referring to?
The Amanas are not Amish. Don't go there and say that, they don't like it. :)
The Amanas are about 30 miles north of Kalona, Iowa(that's where WetHeadWarriors dad was from) That area is heavily populated with Amish and Mennonite. But the only similarity to them and the Amana people is that they are both German and both came here to avoid religious persecution. Amana, I think stands for divine something or another. Not real sure, hell I grew up catholic, wouldn't know anything about all this religion stuff, we concentrated on making the church wealthy, that and getting the priests some action.
By the way, I'm not Amana'n, I was working on a building there one summer while going to college, found a good deal on a house and bought it with a school loan.
Doug
The Amish connection is only hearsay. Before ND, the model was in Ohio. I tried "googling" A. Marchand + building and made a very interesting hit:
University of New Hampshire Library - Milne Special Collections ...... Drawn by Dorinda Hinckley, Edith V. Holt, AJ Marchand. NH-14 EbenezerSmith House. ... Drawn by Dorinda Hinckley, Edith V. Holt, AJ Marchand. ... http://www.izaak.unh.edu/text/wpahabs1.htm - 85k
Why is that so interesting? Well, Edith V. Holt in that list is my mother. I kid you not. This refers to a project in the 30s, right after she graduated from college, when she and some other architecture majors had a job (with the WPA, I think) measuring a historic home in Portsmouth, NH. Probably total coincidence, but my mother is still alive (almost 92 years) and pretty sharp. Next chance I get, I'll ask her if she knows what this guy did after that project.
In the meantime, anyone know any Marchands in the building or design trades in the Ohio area?
Ellen
Damn, all this time I thought that the people of the Amana colonies were Amish...
As to my reference to you, just my poor and abstruse sense of humor. Most people just ignore it... and me too, for that matter! ; )Something is what it does.
Joe
Damn, all this time I thought that the people of the Amana colonies were Amish...
Common mistake, probably the similarity in the names, I think that's why they don't like it. Seems to happen a lot. At least that's what they tell me.
The other part of your message I didn't catch? What reference to me? I didn't see anything that caught my eye, course I aint all that fast!
Doug
OK, rez, I see that you cut the size of the files significantly. How? Please, I really want to know.
Ellen
Hi Ellen, I redid those pics of yours for the online dial-up folk who sometimes have a long wait when downloading large pics here.
There is a image resizing program used and recommended by a number of posters here named 'Irfanview'.
In the search function at the lower left of the Breaktime open page you can type in 'Irfanview' and it will take you to a number of previous posts dealing with directions of operating the program.
Cheers View Image
24441.1 Ellen, you can click on this 24441.1 number and it will take you to an old thread of concentrated data regarding the pic sizing download.View Image
Edited 5/12/2004 10:49 am ET by rez
Thats pretty cool. Have you done a preasure test to determine how tight the construction is ? How abought a thermal scan to see if it has enough insulation. Is the frame bolted to the foundation ? And dont forget to check for radon. ;-)