A ‘Miniature Building Construction in the 20th Century’ Reading List

Title tells all: this is a long term project to create a list of the most important books and articles that capture the techniques and spirit of making miniature buildings in the 20th century. 

You can jump straight to the list at the end of this post if you want and skip this introduction where I'm going to try and explain my motives and guidelines in making it. Also, if you skip to the list, please note it's just a wobbly start at the moment, and I plan to add and subtract from it over the months and years ahead. So, if you think that something important is missing, it might not be a deliberate omission on my part, it might simply be that I haven't come across it yet, so please let me know.

If you're still with me, let's look at the rules.

Ok, I've tried to come up with some guidelines for building the list. I can't say they're completely fair and equitable, and not without contradictions and special cases, but so far they've helped me start painting a picture of 20th century miniature building construction. Sometimes I've bent and broken them a little, but overall they seem to provide workable guidance.

Types of miniature building stories that appear on the list

Stories about scratchbuilds or kitbashes of complete buildings that have appeared in magazines or books published in the 20th century aimed at 'regular' people in the various model making hobbies are candidates for inclusion.

Dollhouses, birdhouses, professional architectural models, toy building blocks and construction sets, Christmas decorations, lawn ornaments, theatrical models, and more-or-less box-stock kit builds are excluded. Dollhouses might work their way in, but that's something I'm still thinking about.

Sources

I'm woefully limited in this regard at the moment, but currently my main sources include Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman / Model Craftsman, Railroad Modeler, Model Trains / HO Monthly, Traction and Models, a smattering of miscellaneous magazines from the UK, and various books written in English. Let me be clear, I'm not deliberately excluding things like model railway magazines from the UK, narrow gauge and other specialist journals, non-model railroad oriented books and magazines, and the no doubt vast literature of non-English books and magazines. In order to make a start, I'm digging into what I have readily available, and hope I can add material from more sources as time goes on. Although, this could be difficult because as far as I can tell there's no comprehensive, public or private, model making focused library anywhere in the world, especially one that has a collection in 20th century miniature building construction - but if you have one, know of one, or have access to one, please let me know.

How to be a candidate

To be a candidate for the list, the story must explain to a 'regular' modeller how to make a particular miniature building from beginning-to-end, and the story must in some way be important to the bigger story of 20th century miniature building construction. Possible aspects a candidate story might have include, but are not limited to: new construction techniques, excellent description and use of old construction techniques, subject matter, writing style, simplicity, detail, lots of citations or mentions by other people or stories, and overall presentation style.

This puts limits on what can be included. There are no photos of, or features on, contest winners, one-off photos of buildings on layouts and dioramas, no built-up kits, and so on. Although, I should note that I've bent this rule when it comes to articles and books about model railroad layouts and dioramas whose main scenic elements are buildings, and the miniature building aspect is the focus of the story. In those cases, teaching beginning-to-end construction of single models isn't often the focus in these stories, but teaching how to group and stage model buildings is.

Also, I should note that articles or books that focus solely on demonstrating construction techniques aren't included - this area could be the subject of a separate list. 

The 'just-one' rule 

Each author is only allowed one entry in the list. So, prolific builders like E. L. Moore get the same number of entries as a one-hit wonder. I've done this to try and focus on the best, or most representative, work of prolific writers as part of the goal to try to create an overall picture, across a variety of practitioners, of what was going on. Sometimes this rule gets bent when it comes to books that are collections of articles, because such books can contain more than one work by a particular writer. Also, it's a bit unfair in that a book author gets far more content on the list than the writer of a magazine article; however, if an author wrote many books, then only one of them could appear on the list. 

The just-one rule is one of the most powerful of this whole exercise because it helps force discussion and thoughtfulness. This is a rule I don't want to break, but maybe I'll need to relent a little so that important things don't get ignored.

Why the focus on the teaching element?

Because I think learning and doing are better than just spectating. No doubt, it's great to see excellent work, but it's also great to learn how it's done and be able to try it yourself. 

A list of reasonable length

The list can't be too long. The temptation is to include everything and not be selective, but that would just yield a master index - useful of course, but not focused on the major trends and themes. Also, the list needs to be short enough that every story could conceivably be read in a reasonable amount of time. What's reasonable? A few weeks to a few months is ok, but a few years to a lifetime isn't. I admit this isn't well defined, but I'll assume you get the gist.

Does the list have any relevance to the architectural professions?

Simply put: no.

I only make note of this because when I discussed this project over drinks with friends one evening, Dave told me about his niece in architectural school, and how he thought architects might be interested in these stories as they're always looking for unique source material and different points-of-view.

My personal view is that architects, if any still use physical models like those captured in the list, use them for purposes of selling projects to clients. 'Regular' model makers build these models out of love; those professional architectural models are done for sales and money. These are two majesties that don't intersect. This is indeed a sweeping statement, and there's likely some architectural practitioners who might find this material interesting, but in the main, I don't think there's any applicability.

Who is the 'Regular' model builder?

I don't have a definitive answer, but I'd say a few characteristics are: a hobbyist, not a professional modeller; skilled, or wants to become skilled, in the use of simple tools; has an interest in buildings, and maybe arts and crafts, or things preservationist; likely involved with model railroading, but maybe something else. I like the way George Illiffe Stokes expressed it in the introduction to his book, Buildings in Miniature:

This book is intended for those modellers, the individualists, who want to go out and sketch or photograph their own buildings, and yet are not quite sure which would be the best way to start building them.

Do such people actually exist? I don't know, it's probably a very small group if they do. Maybe they're a subset of today's 'Makers'? I'd hazard a guess and speculate that 'regular' modellers might have been a little bigger group in the years 1945 to 1980 than today. Postulating the existence of a 'regular' modeller is something of a utopian project because the more of them that could exist and be active, likely the better society is overall. But, this is all wild speculation. 

How the list is organized

Chronologically by decade. 

I've used the generations organizational scheme developed at HiLoBrow to organize the list. For my purposes, and in accordance with the periodization scheme, the decades of the 20th century are rolled out like this:

Tens: 1904 to 1913

Teens: 1914 to 1923

Twenties: 1924 to 1933

Thirties: 1934 to 1943

Forties: 1944 to 1953

Fifties: 1954 to 1963

Sixties: 1964 to 1973

Seventies: 1974 to 1983

Eighties: 1984 to 1993

Nineties: 1994 to 2003

I chose this periodization scheme because the idea that rings true with me is that what we come to recognize as the main events and trends of a decade don't immediately begin as soon as the calendar rolls over to a multiple of 10. When the roll-over happens, people get the signal that the decade has changed, but the actual changes that are already in progress don't really start to take hold for a few years - the previous decade lingers on for awhile. This resonates with me as I felt this quite strongly in the early '80s. In '80, '81 and '82 it felt like the '70s hadn't really ended, but by '83 and '84, those changes that made the '80s the '80s were obvious even to me. That feeling has recurred with each passing decade, although the strength of the feeling is nowhere near as strong to me as it was then - I just accept it now as I'm habituated and older. I think this periodization scheme is applicable to miniature building construction since just because the calendar may change from, say, Dec '69 to Jan '70, doesn't mean all the '60s were immediately jettisoned, and the models and techniques that were commonplace in '76 or '77 landed fully realized on 1 Jan 1970.

Biases, outliers, art, and other considerations

I'm biased, and I don't think a completely unbiased list can be developed. I'll try and make my biases known so you'll know where the list is coming from. 

I think the key publication of the 20th century is John Ahern's 1950 book, Miniature Building Construction. I'd say there's a tie for a close second: John Allen's 3-part series, The GD Line Builds an Old Time Engine House, that appeared in Model Craftsman in 1948; and George Illiffe Stokes' Buildings in Miniature from 1958 - I know, an article versus a book, it isn't completely fair, but I'm not going to slice things too thin.

I think traditional miniature folk art building construction, an activity that saw its heyday from the late-19th century to World War II, was the precursor to a lot of what went on in the field of 20th century miniature building construction. I don't have much to support this notion, but I think it's important to have a look at Burke & Campbell's 2013 book American Folk Art Buildings: Collection of Steven Burke & Randy Campbell. 

I think going out and looking at buildings, photographing, measuring, and drawing them is an important supporting activity. I'm always impressed by what I read about people like Roye England, George Allen and Ernie Huebner, and Chris Pilton doing this sort of thing.  However, when I've tried it I'm often meet with suspicion and hostility no matter how pleasant and permission seeking I've been, although I've found it easier to do in cities than in towns or rural areas. And I've likely been recorded by security cameras and put on lists: one memorable time, simply peddling my bike - no photographing, loitering, drawing or my usual when I see an interesting building -  on the public road in front of Stornoway got me followed by an RCMP patrol car for a rather long distance. But, regardless, the tightly-wound, gentrified world is wiping out what's left of any older, looser, people-oriented world, so I say, see what's left while you still can. Some of my favourite books that have helped me in this area are: Beebe & Clegg's 1947 Mixed Train Daily, Frank Ching's 1975 Architectural Graphics, Richard S. Taylor's 1989 Buildings in Watercolor, and Iain Sinclair's 1997 Lights Out for the Territory. Any stories that I come across that seem strong in this area, I'm biased to want to include them on the list.

Michael Paul Smith's 2015 book, Elgin Park: Visual Memories of Midcentury America at 1/24th Scale, is an outlier and doesn't belong on the list, but I'd recommend reading it. He was a 20th century man who built 20th century themed models using techniques that were more-or-less 20th century. And he did it with great skill and imagination. I found his model work compelling because it always communicated the feeling of a place and not just technical mastery. I tend to look at items under consideration for the list with an eye toward's Smith's work, even though I shouldn't because it's bringing a bias of 21st century work I admire onto true 20th century work where Smith wasn't a practitioner. 

Even more recently, the story about Jools Holland's layout, Journeys from Old London Town, that appeared in the Jan 2019 issue of Railway Modeller, shows a great urban layout that overflows with excellent buildings telling its story of memory and nostalgia. I'd like to include it in the list, but can't even though across several dimensions it seems like a great 20th century layout.

H G. Well's book Floor Games from 1911 is something of a touch-stone even though the book itself doesn't fit the requirements to get on the list. It does talk about constructing makeshift miniature building stand-ins from household items, but not in the way that we're talking about here. Although it's probably one of the first publications about 'playing' with layouts of cities and farms and railways and such, so it does get into putting those buildings to use.

I like reading Dave Hickey's essays on art. With respect to this project, I thought this passage from his essay Orphans in the Storm in his 2013 book, Pirates and Farmers, appropriate: 

Art is not science or technology. Extant works of art never obsolete. They succumb to the whims of fashion and move to the unfashionable suburbs, where Ruscha found Cole, where they remain at the ready, until what is cool at the moment begins to bore us.

Consider this project a curated list of the objects stuffed in the crawl space of one of those suburban homes.

The List

This is what I've got so far. When I stand back and look at it I realize I've barely scratched the surface. But I've also read through what seems like a mountain of stories to even get this far. And, as I stated in the introduction, this is a work-in-progress, and it likely won't start converging on a 'final' list for at least a year or so.

Tens (1904 to 1913)

TBD

Teens (1914 to 1923)

TBD

Twenties (1924 to 1933)

1933
The Alheeba State Railway; A. Cosomati; The Model Railway News: Dec.

Thirties (1934 to 1943)

1934 
Building Wayside Structures; Albert F. Waymeyer; Model Railroader: Oct.

1939 
A Model Station; M. D. Thornburgh; Model Railroader: July, Aug.

1943

Big Town Depot; Frank Ellison; Model Railroader: Jan.

Forties (1944 to 1953)

1948
Modelled Architecture; P.R. Wickham; Percival Marshall & Co. Ltd.
Union Station; Raymond C. Ovresat; Model Railroader: Jan.

The GD Line Builds an Old Time Engine House; John Allen; The Model Craftsman: Oct, Nov, Dec.

1949

Model a California House in Plastic; Tom & Pat Galloway; Railroad Model Craftsman: Aug, Sept.

1950 
Miniature Building Construction; John Ahern; Percival Marshall & Co. Ltd.

'Architecture', Book 5 in the Railway Modelling Series; Edward Beal; Modelcraft, Ltd.

1951 
Eight Ball Locomotive Works; Bill Livingston; Railroad Model Craftsman: Feb.

1952

Diesel Enginehouse; Russell D. Porter; Model Railroader: Feb.

1953 
Prototype Junket; George Allen; Model Railroader: May, June.

Fifties (1954 to 1963)

1955
Old Time Grain Mill; Lloyd Giebner; Railroad Model Craftsman: Mar.

1958 
Easy-to-Build Model Railroad Structures; ed by Willard V. Anderson; Kalmbach Publishing Co..

Model Making in Cardboard; Thomas Bayley; The Dryad Press.

Buildings in Miniature; George Illiffe Stokes; Peco Publications.

1959 
Another HO Scale Suburban Dwelling; Bill Longham; Railroad Model Craftsman: Mar.

Build this Big City; Frank E. Shaffer; Railroad Model Craftsman: Aug.

1961 
Builder's Supply Store Develops Traffic; Robert E. Gilbert; Model Railroader: July.

A Ticket to Tomahawk Please; Al Armitage; Model Railroader: Sept.

1963 
Oak Hill Pit Head; Gil Melle; Railroad Model Craftsman: June, July, Aug.

Sixties (1964 to 1973)

1965 
Bridges & Buildings for Model Railroads; ed. by Willard V. Anderson; Kalmbach Publishing Co.
Crosby's Mill and Other Structures; Bill Rau; Model Railroader: Aug.

1966
A Small Brick Station; James E. Findley; Model Railroader: Nov, Dec.

1967
Turn Backward O Time; E. L. Moore; Model Railroader: Jan.

1968 
Houses on Elm St.; L. E. Black; Railroad Model Craftsman; May.

Small Sawmills for Layouts; Jack Work; Model Railroader: June, July.

1969
Scratchbuilt Loading Shed; Frank L. Hendren; Model Railroader: July.

1971 
Period Railway Modelling: Buildings; Vivien Thompson; Peco Publications & Publicity.

1972
Thatcher's Inlet; Dave Frary & Bob Hayden; Railroad Model Craftsman: Feb, Mar, Apr, May.

Branchline Station; Doug Leffler; Railroad Model Craftsman: Aug.

The Farmhouse, Part 1; Rob Corriston; Railroad Model Craftsman: Dec.

1973 
The Farmhouse, Part 2; Rob Corriston; Railroad Model Craftsman: Jan.

The Baja Box Company; T. E. Stephenson; Railroad Modeler: Feb.

Bull Spred Fertilizer Company; Bill Boyd; Railroad Modeler: Dec.

Seventies (1974 to 1983)

1974 
Second National Bank; Lew Lehrman; Model Railroader: May.

The Perkin's Produce Project; Earl Smallshaw; Model Railroader: Dec.

1975 
Gila Builds a Town; Ron Tarjany; Railroad Modeler: June.

The Urban Scenery of Severna Park; Paul J. Dolkos; Model Railroader: Dec.

1976 
The Lido Theater; D. Derek Verner; Model Railroader: Mar.

The Jerrybuilt Jail; Keith E. Eck; Model Railroader: Nov.

1977 
Modeling Grandmother's House; Doris K. Eck; Model Railroader: Oct.

Jan's Ice House; Mark Henley; Railroad Modeler: Dec.

1978 
Compound Kitbashing to Produce a Feed Mill; Edward C. Steinberg; Model Railroader: Jan.

1980
The Road to Damascus; Sheperd Paine; Chapter 11 in How to build Dioramas: Kalmbach Books.

1981 
Animated Scale Models Handbook; Adolph F. Frank; Arco Publishing, Inc.

Eighties (1984 to 1993)

1984
Structures for the San Juan Central; Malcolm Furlow; Model Railroader: May.

1987
Cottage Modelling for Pendon; Chris Pilton; Wild Swan Publications.

1988 
Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures; Art Curren; Kalmbach Books.

Modeling an Irving Gas Station; Gerry Gilliland; Model Railroader: May.
Modeling the North Conway Station; George Drury; Model Railroader: Dec.

1991 
Kitbash the Offices of the Sun; Harvey Simon; Model Railroader: Jan.

1992 
The House on the Hill; Sam Swanson; Model Railroader: Jan.

Nineties (1994 to 2003)

1994
Building Weimer's Mill; Ben King; Model Railroader: May.

1996
Modeling a "double-wide"; Richard Olson; Railroad Model Craftsman: Oct.
"Scratch-bash" an HO Scale Diesel Enginehouse; Ken Pfaff; Model Railroader: Dec.

1998
Dan's Diner; Michael Justice; Railroad Model Craftsman: Sept.

1999
Building the Sauk Harbor Station; Ray Meyer; Railroad Model Craftsman: Sept.

2000
The Shops at Marian Eddy; Ed Steinberg; Model Railroader: July.
Revell redux; Ron Foreman; Railroad Model Craftsman: Nov.

2002
Building Sweeney; Jonathan James; Model Railroader: May.
Art Deco Auto Dealership; James Benini; Model Railroader: June.

You can see there's a lot of Model Railroader material on the list. That's because they've digitized their magazine, and I have one of their archive DVDs, which makes the issues easy to search. In comparison, RMC and RM aren't, and a pleasant, but laborious, paper search is the only way to proceed. I still have a lot of reading to go with those.

Well, there it is: a start. There are many adds and deletes ahead, and I'll update it as I can. If you have any recommendations, please leave a comment. And, I don't know about you, but after all this, I need some chilaquiles from the 30Squares bistro :-)

[19 April update: After chatting with Vince I replaced Lloyd Giebner's Modern Interlocking Tower from the Jan '57 issue of Model Railroader with his Old Time Grain Mill story from the Mar '55 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. He said he had read that Mr. Giebner's mill story was mentioned somewhere as being one of George Sellios' influences - I need to find that. I also corrected some horrible spelling mistakes :-) ]

[20 April update: Added: Big Town Depot, Union Station, Model a California House in Plastic, Diesel Enginehouse, Modeling a "double-wide".]

[21 April update: Added: Crosby's Mill and Other Structures, A Small Brick Station, Scratchbuilt Loading Shed.]

[27 April update: Added Revell redux.]

[2 May update: Added Building the Sauk Harbor Station and Dan's Diner.]

[12 May update: Added The Road to Damascus.]