Garden Club's Doll House gets repairs

The Aiken Garden Club Council, in cooperation with the City of Aiken and the Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch Inc., are sprucing up the Council's headquarters in Hopelands Gardens.

The Council's longtime home, the Doll House, is one of the oldest remaining outbuildings on the former Iselin estate, dating back to the early 1900s, according to Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch President Joe Spencer. All of the outbuildings on the property are showing signs of wear and tear, Spencer said.

"It's sort of an ongoing situation with Hopelands Gardens and Rye Patch. The buildings are all more than 100 years old," he said. "The Friends have pushed for not just Band-Aid repairs to the buildings but to upgrade and get everything done right. There are underlying structural things that need to be done in the future."

The Garden Club Council first noticed signs of a leak more than a year ago, according to President Jackie Langner, and last year had a contractor inspect the building. He estimated about $17,000 in assorted repairs, including electrical and plumbing work, but the most pressing issue was the roof.

The roof needed repairs to the shingles and the underlayer in several places, a job that bid out at around $5,000. The Council raised the money through donations and through proceeds from last May's Garden and Flower Show, and the City managed the work, which was completed in late February.

"What we saw with Rye Patch (was that) we didn't know everything that needed doing until they got in there, took up the floors and saw what the problems underneath were," Spencer said. "The Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch has its annual meeting at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 21, and we'll be discussing a large plan we did last year with the City for the park. It identified a host of areas needing attention, of which the Doll House is one and a host of others."

The Doll House was built as a playroom and schoolhouse for the children of C. Oliver and Hope Goddard Iselin, the eldest of whom was born in 1903. A larger room, a prefab called a Hodgson House, was later added.

The Doll House was restored, starting in 1974 and dedicated in 1978, and was given to the Aiken Garden Club Council for use as its headquarters in 1979. The Doll House is open to the public from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sundays but is closed through the month of January.

Contact Suzanne Stone at sstone@aikenstandard.com.