Dolholme house tour Christmas 1930

Dolholme was built for Norma E. Dalley for Christmas 1930. You have seen Christmas morning with the Dalley's in a previous post, but you haven't seen the whole house.


Dolholme is a stucco house with painted green trim. It has a regular plug (bottom left side) coming out of the base and when plugged in a Christmas tree bulb lights up each room.




How warm and welcoming it looks when lit up. Please come in and look around. The family is out at the moment. But they won't mind if we have a quick tour.

The house has four rooms and a front hall. All the rooms have hardwood floors and stucco walls. The interior walls are painted off white with gold accents. The interior doors are wood with metal hinges.

The curtains may be original. I am not really sure, but they are not new, so if they aren't original they were added years ago.

The bedroom is the largest room in the house. I have decorated it with 1:12 scale Strombecker furniture. The rug is a tobacco felt. The colorful metal box in the foreground was one of the few pieces that came with the house. I think it is a stamp box.

The wall on the right front side of the house comes off to give access to the living room. This picture looks through the living room into the front hall. The fireplace is built in and is stuccoed to match the rest of the interior. I love the decorative arch to the front hall that matches the arch of the fireplace opening.

The painting above the fireplace came with the house and is an original pencil sketch, but the frame, while it looks good, is made of a newer plastic, so it can't be original. It is possibly from the 60's or later.

The smaller room between the dining room and the bedroom has a few possibilities. It could be a kitchen or a bathroom. But I have decided to make it Norma and Norman's room (picture below).

The big bedroom has a wonderful closet. How many dollhouses have bedroom closets? I love the details of this house. I decided to put a Tootsie Toy toilet and sink in there to give the illusion of a bathroom. You can see a little water damage beside the toilet. I am lucky there were only a few places with water damage in this wonderful house, and they aren't all that noticeable.

Here is the dining room with an arch through to the living room. The table and chairs are newer than the house, but seem to be just the right scale. 1:12 was too big and 1:16 just looked too small, so I tried these. The chairs are Lynnfield bedroom chairs and the table is a Sonia Messer drop leaf table. (Lynnfield evolved into Sonia Messer in the 1970s).

I don't know the origin of the buffet, but it is an older piece and the scale is perfect.

The radio is metal and probably from the 1920's. the double candlesticks are German soft metal from the 20s or 30s, as is the flower basket. The needlepoint carpet and Christmas dish on the table are found pieces.

Norma's and Norman's bedroom is in between the dining room and the big bedroom. Buster is waiting patiently for them to return. The furniture is Strombecker (3/4 scale except the wooden table which is 1" scale)

The rug is a tobacco premium. The lamp is Dolly Dear, as is the one in the other bedrom.

Here is the living room, all ready for Christmas. The lamp is 1920's metal with a fringes shade. The blue chair and side table are 3/4" Strombecker. The rug is handmade needlepoint - a found item, and the cloth flowered sofa is stamped "dollhouse furniture" on the bottom, but as no other identification.

Here is the right side of the house with the wall removed. We can see the front hall, the living room and the dining room.


I love Dolholme. It is one of the most perfect dollhouses I have ever seen. Lucky little Norma. Don't worry Norma. Your house is safe with me.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. Come back and visit again.