Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle

For some time I have been looking for the perfect story for my first posting to the blog, and today a perfect conjunction of events occurred. I serve on the Dante's Heart editorial board and as one of the fiction editors. Now I am delighted to join the Dante's Heart blog, sharing the many, many manifestations of wonder in our little world.

Years ago my grandmother sent me a magazine article about a wondrous fairy castle made on a miniature scale. The chandeliers were encrusted with real jewels, and the organ played music. The lights really lit, and the taps of the bath tub in the princess' suite could be turned on to fill the bathtub with water. I was just dazzled and kept the article through many years and many moves, but lately could not find it.

Today I spoke with a friend, enthusing about the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Chicago Institute of Art, which include more than sixty tiny rooms devoted to recreating the architecture, furnishings, and decorations of European and American life over the past five centuries and including representative rooms from Japan and China. At this link you can see a gallery of the different rooms.

My friend, who grew up in Chicago, said, "Oh, but did you see the fairy castle?" And I at once knew that she was talking about the lost fairy castle that was my fond memory of my grandmother. Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle is now housed at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and it is as dazzling as ever. Even if you cannot get to Chicago you can take a virtual tour and dream about the real thing, including the marvelous "Dining Room" pictured above with King Arthur's "round table." Now that I know where it is, I believe this Fairy Castle will not disappear again!