The Doll House is Gone

Chriscrawfordphoto

Chriscrawfordphoto

Real Men Shoot Film.
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Apr 1, 2007
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Fort Wayne, Indiana
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Thursday afternoon someone left a comment on my photoblog saying that the Doll House and the sheds behind it had been demolished. I hadn't been back there for a couple weeks because I've been so busy finishing up my work for my classes, so I drove out to check it out. The house was, indeed, gone. The basement had been filled with dirt and a big Caterpillar Backhoe stood in the backyard. These machines are used a lot to demolish houses around here.

I found one more doll that I had never seen before, laying under a bush that had stood next to the house. The doll was the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, from the book by Dr. Suess. Christmas was a recurring theme in the house; there were a bunch of Christmas themed children's books inside the house and several of the dolls were Christmas dolls. There was a Santa Claus doll, a snowman, a large mouse wearing a santa hat, and a Teddy Bear holding a gift.

In all, there were 15 dolls and plush animals in the house. I made a group portrait of them all sitting in front of the Caterpillar machine that tore down their house.

I now have almost 20 rolls of doll photos to go through and scan photos from that are not on the website yet. I have a week of classes before school ends for the summer, then there is going to be a lot happening on my Doll House webpages. The story will be told to its end.

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The Doll House
 
It's a bit sad to see something disappear when you've been photographing it on a regular basis.

I became interested in an old grain processing plant in my area and had managed to get inside it and take photos occasionally ... the atmosphere in it was quite surreal and I had planned to take a lot more pics of the abandoned machinery etc.

I drove past a few months later to see a large machine systematically flattening it ... a couple of days later it was all gone!


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The dolls will rise from the grave to wreak vengeance on you for stealing their images.
 
Chris, you've had a rough week. Condolences for that creepy house and for your Grandpa's satanic feline. Requiescat in pace. Glad you were able to document the house and its inhabitants before the house went the way of all things. Your series is a wonderful body of work. That cat is undoubtedly tormenting someone in the netherworld now. Requiescat cat in pace
 
robklurfield said:
Chris, you've had a rough week. Condolences for that creepy house and for your Grandpa's satanic feline. Requiescat in pace. Glad you were able to document the house and its inhabitants before the house went the way of all things. Your series is a wonderful body of work. That cat is undoubtedly tormenting someone in the netherworld now. Requiescat cat in pace
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Molly is back in Hell plotting to overthrow the Devil. He isn't evil enough for her, so she's taking over.

Mice, rabbits, chipmunks, dogs, and rattlesnakes the world over celebrated her return to her fiery home. I think that she has killed more than 6000 small animals in my grandpa's yard over the years, including the two rattlesnakes that she is known to have killed.

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Molly would wait here for mice to emerge from a hole in the barn's wall near the bucket and tire. Was like shooting fish in a barrel, she would get 5-10 of them a day.
 
Keith said:
It's a bit sad to see something disappear when you've been photographing it on a regular basis.

I became interested in an old grain processing plant in my area and had managed to get inside it and take photos occasionally ... the atmosphere in it was quite surreal and I had planned to take a lot more pics of the abandoned machinery etc.

I drove past a few months later to see a large machine systematically flattening it ... a couple of days later it was all gone!


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Click to expand...

What a cool place! Awesome photo.
 
Hyman Dickstein said:
You don't realize they planned it that way?
Click to expand...

LOL. Last time I was at the house, before it was torn down, I took them home with me. There was considerable evidence that the house would soon be demolished; someone had driven a bulldozer down the driveway and ripped out some trees and a big hole had been dug in the backyard to remove old sewer pipes. I wasn't done with the story of the dolls so I took them so they wouldn't be destroyed too. They've been abandoned once already.
 
Chris: Really looking forward to what's on those yet-to-be-dealt-with rolls. I love a lot of what I've seen so far...this has been a fascinating story from the get-go!


- Barrett
 
Now photographs you have made got into next level. And you didn't postpone until there's nothing to photograph.
 
I try not to delay long when I find something really interesting, but I have missed a few because the light was bad the day I discovered them and never got back in time. Here's one that I got just in time:

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I drove past this house MANY times over a period of a year, but it didn't look too interesting from the outside. Finally, near the very end of the year, I saw a bulldozer sitting by it on a Friday evening. I figured that Monday it would be torn down. I did a bunch of photographs of the outside, this was the only one I really liked of all of them. This was New Years Eve. After I finished, I walked inside after noticing the back door was open. The inside was incredible! I was out of film, so I sped as fast as I could into the city and all the way downtown, arriving at the camera store just as they were about to close for the evening (at 5:00). Bought a couple pro-packs of Tmax 400...the old version...this was the last day of 2000!

I got these:
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The Kitchen

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The Living Room

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The Shower

The very best came last. The entire floor of the house was coated in ice. There was a narrow stair with no handrails, each step covered in ice. I decided to make the climb, with my 15lb Bogen tripod and a big tamrac bag with my Mamiya 645 kit (645 Super body and 120 back plus 4 lenses and spotmeter). I made it up alive, looked in the bedrooms, they weren't interesting. Then noticed a narrow hall leaving one bedroom. I walked down it to the walk-in attic:

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The interior photographs were made on New Years Day 2001. The house was torn down the very next day, January 2, 2001.
 
I just finished reading Cormac McCarthy' The Road. And the doll house pictures, and other pics above fit the story perfectly.
great work.
 
Chris, I am so sorry the house is gone. I think it was a seminal point in your career.
You saved the dolls (but make sure they cannot kick down the back seat of your car and strangle you as you drive). 🙂
That cat is quite a huntress. Be glad Molly and the dolls cannot plot together.
A shame some bits and pieces of that house could not be salvaged. That door with its original lock box and knobs would have been worth hundreds to some collector; the sink, too ...
 
Chris the doll house photos have truly been fascinating! Looks now the 1st chapter has come to a close. One thing I have learned is not to procrastinate! A lot of shots I've missed. Hopefully one day someone with some inside pull with some famous gallery will recognize this work of art for what it truly is & you'll finally receive national or world wide recognition which it deserves!
 
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