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Special to the Gazette
By Leigh Ellen Martz, senior journalism student
Gordon Rutherford thinks big for his job at the University and small for
his hobby at home.
By day, Rutherford is the University's director of facilities planning. By
night, he builds miniature ships, houses and railroads.
But even at work, his hobby has a way of helping him get over the humps of
a bad day. And no matter where he is or what he is doing, his latest project is
never far from mind.
"It is so far removed from what I do during the day, so it's a great
diversion," Rutherford said. "Whether it's a ship model, train, dollhouse or
whatever, there are problems you need to solve. So if I'm sitting in a boring
meeting, I can think about how to lay the floor or put a piece in or whatever."
Several of Rutherford's ships sit atop bookshelves in his office in the
Giles F. Horney Building. On the walls are photographs of some of the rooms in
his miniature houses, a 1991 newspaper clipping that features him and his
hobbies, and a print that depicts older men and finely dressed young women
socializing -- a scene in a bordello, Rutherford said.
Why the bordello print? Because of the bordello he built when he tired of
building Victorian houses, he said. He explained that a friend offered to make
the dolls if he'd make the bordello. He did, so she made 20 fancy dolls.
"It was a lot of fun naming the people and making up their life
histories," Rutherford said. "The madame's name is Rosy Vice."
His hobby helps him keep his perspective and a sense of humor, he said.
His job, which is serious by nature, involves making expensive and permanent
decisions for the University. He said that since about 1970, he has been
involved in all of the capital improvements at Carolina, which have totaled
about $1 billion.
His hobby, on the other hand, lets him make decisions on a much smaller
scale. It also lets him use his imagination, he said. Once he used bottle caps
for plates, a cheaper alternative to miniature china. But the option to spend a
lot of money on décor exists. A miniature enthusiast could spend $10,000
on a chandelier studded with 52 diamonds or $3,500 for a working grandfather
clock.
"That illustrates that the hobby can be anything," Rutherford
said.
Jan McCandliss, the western North Carolina state representative for the
National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts, said Rutherford's houses are
"exceptional."
"Many miniaturists build dollhouses which look good but would not support
themselves should they be magically expanded to human size," she said.
"Gordon's not only look good, but they would be livable in the real
world."
One is on display in the Ackland Art Museum until Jan. 23. Leslie Balkany,
museum educator, said that Rutherford takes one or two years to build and
furnish his houses, working during his spare time.
Rutherford laughed while he spoke about his evening architectural pursuits
at home. "I go down and hide in my shop and tell the world to go to hell."
During those constructive evenings spent toiling in his workshop alone or
perhaps with his dog at his feet, Rutherford has built miniature houses that
have attracted attention for years.
Balkany said that about eight years ago, a former museum director saw one
of Rutherford's houses on display. He was "impressed by its historic accuracy
and complexity," she said, and so he arranged to have one displayed in the
Ackland. Every year since, the museum has exhibited a Rutherford house.
"People are always fascinated with the miniature house at first glance,
because what appears to be familiar -- a `dollhouse' -- becomes much more with
closer looking," Balkany said. "Because of its size, the décor, the
variety of furnishings and unexpected visual surprises, visitors love to look
and look some more."
The scale of the Rutherford house on display is one-inch-to-one-foot, just
big enough to see the details. Peering in through the living room window, one
can imagine the organ music filling the room along with the crackling sounds
from the fireplace. The electric lights brighten the room, and braided rugs
cushion the echo from the hardwood floors.
Upstairs, the little girl's bedroom is charming and properly furnished for
a well-to-do Victorian child. Little toys lie about, and a petite flower print
papers the walls.
The exterior walls are covered with thousands of individual clapboards,
and wooden shingles cover the multi-angled roof -- all carefully laid in place
by Rutherford's large hands.
While the house itself is based on 19th-century patterns, the carriage
house Rutherford built to accompany it stems from his imagination, he said.
Topped with a brass weather vane, the carriage house has plenty of feed in it,
plus a buggy, but no horse.
"Part of the fun of the hobby is creating the illusion that you're part of
the scene," Rutherford said. "If you've done that, you're successful."
To do this, Rutherford placed two reduced photographs of family members in
one of his Victorian houses. One is a tintype of his great, great grandfather.
The other is a portrait of his daughter and son-in-law dressed up in
old-fashioned clothes.
In his bordello, a fancy mirrored bar -- lined with teeny bottles -- could
certainly please many tiny guests. Could Rutherford imagine himself having a
sip there?
"You betcha'," he said.
House on display
"Season's Greetings: A Victorian Miniature House by Gordon
Rutherford" is on display at the Ackland Art Museum through Jan. 23. Museum
hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesday-Saturday; and 1-5 p.m., Sunday.
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