Nybelwyck Hall is a 26-room estate, with 19th-century architectural elements suggested by homes in Washington and the Hudson River Valley and filled with about 900 interior objects — many of them hand-crafted.
Built over 10 years by Mark O'Banks for about $20,000, it was recently appraised for $160,000.
What's the catch? Well, to live in it, you'd have to be really, really small.
The elaborate dollhouse was built by O'Banks in his Washington, D.C., apartment before he died of AIDS in 2002. His hope was that the mansion, would end up in a museum.
And so it has.
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Its furnishings include antiques bought from the now-closed Washington Dolls' House and Toy Museum, needlepoint rugs that O'Banks designed and were crafted by his mother and pictures he framed with molding found on the street.
The façade of the central portion is loosely based on the Hudson River estate, Staatsburg.
The orange and green color scheme on the high Victorian addition is based on Wilderstein, the family home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's secretary.
The concept of the lantern comes from George Washington's home Mount Vernon. The roof line in the French style was drawn from buildings on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C.
Nybelwyck Hall is filled with allusions to O'Banks' friends, family and special moments woven into the story of the dollhouse's fictional Van Nybelwyck family.
