Issues → September/October 2008 → Interact → 10 Things to Do → SLIDE SHOW: Mystic Seaport Model →

Greenfield, MA: Scale Model Town in His Backyard

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(page 3 of 4)

He is talking here not only about things such as the old cracker barrels of which nostalgists are so fond, but of an enormous treadle-operated lathe, a giant hand-cranked drill press, a belt-driven planer that weighs a full ton, an ancient table saw with a wooden bed and a blade reminiscent of scenes from the silent movies.

In the pattern-maker's shop, bolted to the rafters, Waine has a rope winch that looks capable of reeling in the Queen Mary. Miles of hemp rope are wound to the spool. Waine says the entire unit weighs 1,800 pounds. He should know. "I put it up there piece by piece and it was a pain in the neck, but I bet there isn't another one like it anywhere." Probably not. He looks ground him, the tools silent but set like a stage, ready to come to life -- all they need are the men and the women and the times past.

In rooms and in separate buildings, he leads me through his version of the past -- a dry goods shop ("I'm going to hang curtains in here when the time comes"); the wheelwright's shop (gently, he runs his fingertips across the spoked wooden wheel, set in its vise, half made); the ice cream parlor with the old marble fountain and soda dispensers (he walks in and straddles one of the stools, puts his elbows on the counter); the toy shop, which displays a few of his own toys from his own growing up -- WW II soldiers and Jeeps -- alongside wind-up steam shovels and a ride-on bull with wheels and other vintage toys; the candy shop, stocked, like the pharmacy, with penny candy -- Mint Juleps and Chocolate Babies and Red Hot fireballs (many jars are empty -- "I fight the mice in here all winter," he says). On and on: the barber shop with its Regulator clock, lined-up mugs, and the spittoon in the comer; the doctor's office with the rolltop desk, leather couch, cane-seated wheelchair, and black bag on the floor.

The dentist's office is still in the making. There are just a few tools, two chairs, and a mean-looking old treadle drill. "I need more parts here. I'll stumble onto something," he says. His wife, Margaret, a wiry, fun-loving woman, has already told me how this happens. "He reads in the paper that so-and-so, a doctor or dentist or whatever, is retiring. Bingo, he's on the phone!" She laughs.

Over the years she has played the spectator in this, watching from the window as Waine works. She is amused, never troubled, by this accumulation, this little city going up around her.

How did this happen? "It was just a notion," Waine says. "It seemed like a fun idea. But you see where it went. I'm going right through to the other side of the mountain."

Indeed. Up a steep footpath, gated by low-hanging branches, Waine continues the tour, to the top of the high hill above his house. If it were cleared of its trees, there would be a million-dollar view of Greenfield and the Pioneer Valley below. But the trees are as thick as ever, except for the two new buildings wedged in. Waine says he just found a place he liked, swept aside the brush, and poured the concrete.

One is a church big enough to hold a hearty Greenfield congregation. It has a white steeple and a floor-to-ceiling, multicolored stained-glass window that his grandmother gave to a church in Hubbardston, Massachusetts, back in the 19th century and which serendipity floated back to Waine. It was one thing that his wife helped him with, holding it steady while he framed it in. Soon he plans to move up here the several dozen fir pews he has stashed under the barn and set them in place.