Sunday, November 23, 1997 - NY Scene
Cottage Industry
Want a little place to call your own?
Ned Kellogg builds fine dollhouses
by Ruth Bashinsky
Photography by Corey Sipkin
Ned Kellogg owns quite a bit of property - San Francisco townhouses, 17th -century Dutch
colonials, Tudors and gothic Victorians.
So if you're in the market for a new house - a dollhouse, that is - then
master builder Kellogg would be happy to sell you any one of his dream homes.
In a charming shop in Cold Spring Harbor, L.I., Kellogg sits quietly at
his dusty workbench concealed by row after row of handmade miniatures. Kellogg
and his wife spilt the duties here: He creates fantasy homes, and she runs
the store - and keeps him sane.
"Making the houses is very high-stress, but I have the nature to take
it," explains Kellogg while adding some finishing touches on an ivory
plantation house, his latest creation. "It was never a hobby. I could
just make things."
Kellogg, who opened Kellogg's Dollhouses with his wife 21 years ago, says
he started his business because he was disgusted by the quality of commercial
dollhouses.
"There was no substance," he says. "So I decided if I was
going to make something, it was going to be good, so we can give people
their dollar's worth and more."
While most of his ideas come from his imagination and architectural books,
he's sure he can build just about anything. He remembers his most unusual
request: It was from a woman who wanted a replica of the apartment building
on E. 85 th St.
where she grew up.
When he was finished, the structure was 7 feet high and 6 feet deep. There
were 65 rooms. 12 bathrooms, sidewalks, wrought-iron handrails, fire escapes,
basement stores and big plate-glass windows. It was so gigantic that it
had to be delivered by a moving company.
Scratching his salt-and-pepper beard, Kellogg says, "I don't know how
I did that. I wouldn't want to do that job again!"
But he seems to thrive on challenges. So far, he has spent 175 hours on
a house called The Rochester, which has 18 rooms and nine doors. He estimates
he'll need another 300 hours to finish it.
The pace at which Kellogg works doesn't make for much spare time; he lives
by the rule that you finish what you start. Although he's unsure where his
craft is taking him, he hopes either to find a buyer for his collection
so it can be in a museum setting, or to open his own collection with the
help of an investor.
In the meantime, Kellogg has more than two dozen orders to fill before the
holidays. But he's not fazed by the workload. "I don't want to stop
making houses, because I like architecture," he says, "and if
a house is done well, I can't think of anything else I would rather do.
And if I had nothing to do, I would go crazy."
Kellogg's Dolls' Houses
49 Main Street
Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724
Store Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday 12:00-5:00
Sunday 1:00-5:00
Closed Monday
Tel: (631) 692-5558
e-mail: KelloggsDH@cs.com
Return to kelloggsdollhouses.com