Recreating scenes from famous paintings on layouts

[Anonymous]

Hawthorn and Melville were both authors in an earlier mid 19th century period and that house is a much later high Victorian style. The the actual building wrote about in House of the Seven Gables is In Salem Mass. just outside Boston. You can take tours of it. It was even in an episode of the 60's sitcom "Bewitched" mainly because it was in Salem during the "Witch" trials. Those early New England religious fundimentalists had several "witch" trials and even some "vampire" trials. It is just that the ones at Salem became the most infamous. Pretty silly. I wonder what will seem this silly about us in the future.

If you are interested in literary based houses having to do with railroads look at the house of a contemporary of Hawthorn and Melville, the first sucessful american author who was able to make his living from his writings, Washington Irving. His house "Sunnyside" in Tarrytown NY just north of NYC is right on the ex New York Central mainline along the Hudson river. It is a really wild looking gothic remodeling of a colonial house from the 1600's. In fact the house was built by the Van Tassels who he named the family of Ichabods love interest in the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" after. Apparently Washington Irving was not a train enthusiast and was furious when the railroad came in the 1840's and cut him off from the Hudson River. Everyday many Metro-North commuters pass yards from the house which is open to tours. MetroNorth names some of it's cars and one was named Washington Irving, one Nathanial Hawthorn and one Ichabod Craine.

[Anonymous]

Oh and if you are looking for an art work to base this scene on Currier and Ives did several "Sunnyside" prints.