The Lanneau-Norwood doll house, all decked for the Holidays, in the Christmas Room at The Children’s Museum of the Upstate.

As a kid, the Christmas Season began for me when I hauled out my train set. I didn’t care if the trains ran. Most years they didn’t. What I loved was constructing the mini buildings and scenery. My first forays into 3 dimensional painting.

And so, last year when commissioned to do a dimensional painting of the Lanneau-Norwood House, I was delighted to learn there was a miniature version of it—a Lanneau-Norwood doll house. The doll house was built in 1977 by Tom Henry, a miniatures enthusiast and owner of The Front Porch antiques shop on Augusta Road. But the doll house was never completed and languished in the carriage house behind the mansion. Patt Smith, a respected Greenville real estate agent, discovered and acquired the model a few years ago when the actual house went on the market. Patt, her family and dedicated friends set about finishing and restoring it. It was a considerable undertaking.

Patt has generously loaned this wonderful doll house to The Children’s Museum of the Upstate for the Holidays. The Lanneau-Norwood doll house is all dressed up for the Season, inside and out, and ready to receive visitors.

Photo layout of 7 of the lavishly decorated little rooms.

The “nursery” occupies the room in the central tower.

Each room tells a story about its imagined inhabitants.

It took a specialized electrician over a week to fully wire the miniature house.

Great attention was given to replicating the later-19th C era in which the actual house was constructed.

Even the fireplaces flicker and glow with warm light.

The Norwood-Lanneau dollhouse will be at the Children’s Museum throughout the Holidays.