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WATCH: Toy Museum Staff Tackle Daunting Task Of Packing Up Giant Dollhouse

Julie Denesha
/
KCUR
The stately Coleman dollhouse is taken apart to make way for renovations at The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures.

The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures in Kansas City, Mo., houses one of the largest toy collections on public display in the United States. In January, the museum closed its doors for a yearlong renovation, but the work inside continues. 

One of the star attractions of the collection is the Coleman dollhouse. The largest dollhouse in the museum's collection, it measures 9 feet tall and 8 feet wide and once belonged to the wealthy Coleman family from Lebanon, Pa.

Watch museum staff carefully pack up the tiny contents of the house and talk about the house's owners and history:

When the Coleman family home was razed in 1961, the demolition crew sold the dollhouse to the Atlanta Toy Museum. When that museum closed its doors in the 1980s, the dollhouse was acquired by The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures in Kansas City.

The museum re-opens in 2015 after replacing climate-control systems and upgrading exhibits, at an estimated cost of $9.2 million.

Julie Denesha is the arts reporter for KCUR. Contact her at julie@kcur.org.
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