The 1900 Series Store Fronts

     The 1900’s are Retail Store units that could have existed in your neighborhood in the 20th Century, or even today.  The merchandise offered in these family run stores varied from hardware to clocks; from butcher shop to barber shop, or drug store to corner fountain shop.

    The 1900’s are not kits.  They are totally Custom built exclusively for you and limited only by your imagination.  Although the 1901 store has been sold, Jimmy has four new ones in the works.  Check out his new designs below.  All four will be on display at the Tom Bishop show in April, 2012.  Although the idea, design and construction of each of these stores is Jimmy Landers’, I have been honored to provide most of the electrical.  Each store has a remote control to turn on different features within the display.  Most of the lighting uses LEDs and where there is open wiring, we set it up as old knob and tube.  Each store is built on a custom designed solid wood turn table.  The display will revolve a full 360 degrees with all the electrical features fully functional
 

All Stores were
SOLD at Tom Bishops Miniature Show in Chicago
April 21st 2012

Three of the four storefronts that will be on display at Tom Bishops’ International Miniature show in Chicago on April 19th through April 22nd, 2012.  Three are all that would fit on the 12 feet of display arranged for at the show.  You will have to travel over to the 3 Blind Mice show in Schraumburg to see the fourth storefront.  No problem though as there is a shuttle provided to take you from Tom’s show to the 3 Blind Mice Show.  You will find the last storefront at my display table along with all the electrical features I sell.

All of the pictures below do not do these one-of-a-kind stores justice.  You really need to see them in person to appreciate the quality work that has gone into each one.

1901 Store Front

  This brick store front was the second designed, but first sold.  This series came from an idea to make a number of store front buildings around the early 1900’s.  This and all subsequent buildings are unique and directly from Jimmy Landers’ imagination.  No building will ever be duplicated making each store front truly, a one of a kind. 

  “The 1900 is one retail store in a series of stores that I have designed.  Each will have a dated stone and I will never duplicate it.  If you choose to own any of  my 1900 series stores, you have my word that it is not a copy of any known work.” -- Jimmy Landers
 
 

1900 Merchantile  31” x 26” base

     This Mercantile was the first store front started.  As Jimmy completed the brick front wall he came up with the idea of the above 1901 store and decided to complete it first.  There are over 8000 brick creating the front of this store. The Mercantile is divided into two stores.  The entrance opens into a small hall that allows entrance to the left and right for each of the two stores.  Each store is laden with walls of shelving.  Note the roof and painted wall of the last picture posted.  Even the small window on the side of the store opens tilting up.  The finished store is mounted on a swivel table made from Sassafras wood.  The table fully revolves 360 degrees and of course the store is completely electrified and operated using a remote control.
 

1902 Rustic Rural Center   36” x 34” base

     The 1902 is Jimmy’s rendering of a rustic rural community center.  The building is comprised of a grocery, hardware and a Post Office.  Next door is a mechanical garage with a single hand pumped, gravity fed  gas pump.  In the early 1900’s horse and buggy was the most common form of transportation, so a water trough is placed outside.  The proprietor would normally have an apartment above the store without any amenities; water or privy.  Coal burning potbelly stoves were used to heat and ceiling fans plus screen doors were the only methods for cooling.  Accessories, such as the gas pump, wooden Indiana and oil drum are from Wright Guide Miniatures.

The Ariel shot gives a good view of the custom cherry turntable.  This table is on six inch legs but comes with replaceable 28” legs too.  The overall dimension is 36” x 34” and was designed and built by Creative Reproductions 2 Scale.

     We got all the electric finished!  The left picture shows the metal stairs going to the apartment and the above two pictures show the inside two floors.  All of the kerosene lights, 6 of them, are LED’s.  Note the coal stove in the back corner of the first floor as well as the post office at the left front.  Two of my custom ceiling fans can be seen hanging amoung the kerosene lights.

     The 1903 Boutique is a single store with all the thrills.  An exclusive high-end store that may have been found in the high fashion district of Boston or New York.   Marble tiled floors, a custom relief ceiling, two circular display windows and a stone sidewalk are but a few of the unique features of this storefront.  Upon completion there will be custom designed leaded glass panels by Barbara Sabia; 4 custom & exclusive designed working ceiling fans created by Creative Reproductions 2 Scale; and 95% of all lighting will be LED’s.  The complete display will be mounted on a solid cherry table that fully revolves and is electrified, built by Creative Reproductions 2 Scale. The lighting will be controlled by a 12 channel remote control.  The electrical has been wired by Creative Reproductions 2 Scale.  Note the brick and square stone sidewalks.
     The front is made with over 12,000 hand laid (one at a time) real brick.  The brick comes from Richard Stacey in Sussex, England:  www.richardstacey.com
 

Close up of one of the coach lights using a LED

Most of the wiring is done and we had to see what the front lights look like.  Most all of the lights in the boutique are LED’s.  Wow, do those round corner windows look great or what?

The beginnings of the interior showing the solid cherry trim and cabinetry.  The back corner shows one of the three mirrors in the dressing room.

ABOVE:  All of the leaded glass pieces as we received them from Barbara.
LEFT:  Pictures of one of the four chandeliers that will be in the boutique.  It has been wired with three Chip LEDs and made to plug into the micro jacks mounted in the ceiling.

Here is the Grand Chandelier that will be in the entrance of the Boutique.  Five tiers of the same leaded glass design by Barbara Sabia.  I have added 11 chip, warm white LEDs.  This light draws only 90 ma. in total current.  If they had grain-of-wheat flame bulbs it would use over 440 ma of current and would put out a whole lot of heat.  LEDs, of course, put off virtually no heat and should last for over 20,000 hours..

We installed all of the lights and guess what----They all work and look terrific.  This store is 99.9% finished and just needs a little twitching and fine adjustments.

You can see the real marble floors and matching marble counter tops in this picture.

These last two pictures show the elaborate leaded glass doors in the two changing rooms.  There is still a little molding needed for the door but what a unique addition to this boutique.

The picture on the left shows the illuminated  center display tables with the leaded glass changing room door.  Can you imagine what this will look like with all the shelves full of clothing, shirts, hats, and the show cases full of whatever.

1904 Retail Store

     This store was started January 4th and today is 98% complete.  It has two large retail units on the first floor and even a spiral staircase going to the second floor.  I believe Jimmy is becoming a little carried away with this design.  He has even lost count as to the number of brick on this one. Extremely large front windows and two separate entrances; one for each shop.  There are two half round windows looking into the basement and three round windows looking into the 2nd floor studio.  The back has a large opening for easy loading and setup of the loft.  Both sides are hinged for access to the two stores.  This will be a real knock-out when completed.