Model Train House on Tour

Enjoy real steam model trains and aVictorian House with English gardens.

Home of - Richard Dalby

1722 Kurtz Avenue is probably the newest old house in Lutherville. It was balloon framed in 1910 and has been a work in progress almost ever since. Inexpert detective work suggests an expanded kitchen and upstairs bathroom were built in the 1940’s, and that a powder room was created about the same time by enclosing a section of the side porch – until this year it retained the slope of the deck! The next addition may have been a rear family room, which was later topped with a master bedroom in 1991. In 1995 the second floor was extensively reconfigured by the present owner. Indoor plumbing and electricity were retrofitted long ago, but air conditioning had to wait until 2004 when the octagonal sun room was added and the kitchen was updated. Demolition of interior walls has yielded improvised newspaper insulation dating from the 1940s to the 1970s and up to 7 layers of wallpaper; while attic clean-up revealed a toy car Made in Occupied Japan and Edwardian photographs taken at Hebbel Studio on Gay Street. The original L-shaped structure is hardly distinguishable anymore and the inside now has all the features of a comfortable, modern home, but the exterior has been grey with Swedish siding for as long as my neighbors can remember.

The garden too held many surprises including a buried bayonet and sword plus hundreds of more recent car parts. Hardest of all to explain were multiple layers sheet metal through which a third of an acre of bamboo was growing when I moved in. My much missed neighbors, Bill and Ruth Whitelock, longtime residents of the community, explained that at one time the bottom of my garden housed many chicken coups used to host local cock fights. The huts were demolished by a past owner who strived for the oriental look and planted the bamboo. The present owner contents himself with keeping the bamboo in-check, to minimize its encroachment into his English-style flower garden, which is planted around some of the neighborhoods beautiful old trees.

Most of these photos were taken by the homeowner, Richard Dalby, except the ones that he's in, taken by Marianne Wittelsberger.

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