E. L. Moore’s residence and The Clarabel Hotel

[E. L. Moore's residence in Charlotte, North Carolina via Google Streetviews]

"Build me a hotel for my very own," said my wife in one of her more demanding moods. This being one of the less expensive ways of appeasing her (much less than the price of a dress or shoes!) I decided to humor her. Leafing through a stack of prototype snapshots, I asked, "How about this'n?" It was a three-gable front with lots of fancy railing that I'd been intending to build for some time, and now that Grandt Line railing was available the time was ripe ... and she fell for it as I figured she might. However, when it came to building it I cheated a bit, making a two-gable front hotel.

That was E. L. Moore’s explanation for why he built The Clarabel Hotel, and what he based it on, that appeared in the February 1974 issue of Railroader Modeler. However, let me suggest an alternative for the prototype source material: he used his own residence and 19^th century-ized it to get the hotel.

[The glamour shot for The Clarabel Hotel build that appeared in the Feb '74 issue of Railroad Modeler]

Awhile back I posted that E. L. Moore lived on Pine street in Charlotte, North Carolina, but nothing remained today except a parking lot and a dumpster. Recently Vince informed me of another address that an ex-RMC editor told him the magazine had on file back-in-the-day to get in contact with Mr. Moore,

525 Oakland Ave., Apt. 3

Charlotte, North Carolina, 28204

From examining the ‘evidence’ again it’s looking like E. L. Moore lived at the Pine street address until the late ‘50s or early ‘60s, and then moved to the Oakland address and lived there throughout the ‘60s and into the ‘70s.

 [E. L. Moore's place on Oakland Avenue.]

His Oakland apartment building subconsciously  reminded me of The Clarabel Hotel project – strangely, I woke up in the middle of the night with the connection.

[The side windows are visible in this Google Streetviews shot]

The residence and model share several major features: twin gables on the façade, upper and lower balconies, overall size and proportions are roughly similar, central entrance to a central hallway and staircase, similar side window organization. The Clarabel Hotel is his own residence in a 19^th century disguise. – well, at least, as Yogi Berra might have said, the similarities are rather similar :-)

Two churches

The E. L. Moore schoolhouse build reminded me of this church I photographed in the late 1990's. It's a Free Methodist church that, according to the sign, was founded in 1895. I can't recall exactly where it's located other than I think it was in the township of Marmora and Lake in Hastings County, Ontario. In the same bundle of photos was the one shown below of the Eldorado Church of the Nazarene in Eldorado, Oklahoma. Debra shot the picture sometime in the late 1990's. It has a distinctiveness that might make for a good model.

E. L. Moore's Legacy in the 21st Century: The lost schoolhouse is found

As well as its formal beauty, one of the more interesting aspects of this E. L. Moore project is that it was the subject of one his articles that remained unpublished at his death and was 'lost' until quite recently. A few weeks ago I was contacted by a gentleman who mentioned that he owned the lost manuscripts, but due to legal restrictions could not circulate copies; however, he could say one was about a project that could be built as either a schoolhouse or church. After a little emailing with the gentleman and the owner of the collection of E. L. Moore built originals, it was clear that this schoolhouse was the same as the one described in a lost manuscript. This was an exciting development.

The owner informs me the model is missing the flagpole and flag, but it's likely mixed in with the packing materials used to store it. Like the large cabin, this model was on display at the North Hills Hobby Shop in Raleigh, North Carolina for a number of years.

It has a fully detailed interior complete with desks, pupils, piano and a teacher. The owner says he added the light strung to the rafter to better show off the insides.

This looks like the teacher is reading the lesson.

But it appears that someone isn't paying attention. That wooden prop modelled to hold up the lower part of the double-hung window is a nice touch.

Randomness

A streetcar track plan in HO

This is the old sign...

... and this is what it became - note: the unconventional moose is a fun place!

Bad Actor with hood on the chassis

Traffic in Toronto

This is an N-scale possibility

Passion

Couch testing

Some golden rod and a tanker

Sunflowers and handcar shed

Engine parts for the T'ranula

Always end with the ocean

E. L. Moore's Legacy in the 21st Century: Two cabins

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

Two cabins: a large one on the left, and a much smaller one on the right. Both are HO scale. Both were built by E. L. Moore. It appears that they were made using methods outlined in his articles Easy to build Cottage or Cabin that was published in the December 1963 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, Backwoods Log Cabins that appeared in the September 1968 issue, and Under the spreading chestnut tree (about a village smithy) that appeared in the June 1964 issue of Model Railroader. As well, he used the same method on a few other projects. The Spumoni's house in Spumoni Country Estate that appeared in the July 1955 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman is a good example.

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

This is the larger of the two. It's an unassuming and utilitarian building. It looks like something pioneers in the northern US states or Canada might have built to get through a long, hard winter. Small windows. One door. Massive fireplace. Wood pile near the door because when you're buried in snow and it's freezing outside you don't want to go far when the fire needs replenishing. Although, the wood pile would need to be considerably larger to get through an entire winter. This isn't a dilettante's weekend get-away place.

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

This photo gives a much better view of that fireplace. It's massive.

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

Here's a detail shot of the fireplace exterior. It appears to have been carved from wood - likely balsa given that this is an E. L. Moore build - and the stones are individually painted. The blue ones are a nice touch. You can also see that Mr. Moore spent some time adding the chinking between the logs for a little extra realism, and the logs themselves have a pleasant variation in tone. 

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

The roof lifts off to reveal a detailed interior. There are two beds in the loft, and it looks like a bench or chest to help keep sleepwalkers from falling though the ceiling! 

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

This shot gives a good idea of how small those details are.

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

The ceiling / loft floor lifts out to show a fully detailed interior.The inside is rather homey compared to the exterior. Table cloth, oil painting, curtains and a large, well-stocked bookcase. Not to mention a clock on the mantel and a rifle for hunting game. There is a red light bulb in the fireplace to make it look like an actual fire, and the owner added a another small bulb to light-up the interior. 

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

That Sharpie pen gives an idea of the size. It's rather small. The model is in very good condition, and the owner informs me that for many years it was part of the in-store layout at the North Hills Hobby Shop in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

The second cabin is HO-size as well, but it's much smaller and doesn't have a detailed interior. It looks like it has some sort of shake roof whereas its big brother had boards for roofing.

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

But, like its big brother, the fireplace is also quite large in comparison to the building. 

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

There's only one window and one door - the back wall is solid logs.

[Private collection - Posted with permission of the owner.]

The opposite end wall is just as solid. Wintering over would be tough in this little cabin.

As I've read through the E. L. Moore construction articles I'm starting to think his work on buildings falls into two broad categories: the first were highly selectively compressed, used simple materials and were very low cost, and the second were more finely detailed, less idiosyncratic and fit better into the mainstream of where model making was going. The first group I'd call his classic style, and things like Bunn's Feed and Seed, Jones' Chemical Company and Caleb's Cabbage Company fit into that category. The second group includes projects like The old red barn from the January '66 issue of Model Railroader, and Nova Scotian Lighthouse from the October '69 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. These two cabins seem to be a little more in the second category than the first.