Model Obama homes in garden holiday train shows
NEW YORK – Models of the Obama White House, the Obama home in Chicago and the house Michelle Obama grew up in are on display at holiday train shows at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington.
Holiday train shows are also held in other gardens around the country, with each show featuring trains running past miniature versions of local landmark buildings. Other locations for the holiday train shows include the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati.
The trains are garden-scale models, which are about 1/25th the size of real trains. But the most spectacular aspect of these shows is that the model buildings are created entirely from plant material — seeds, bark, pods, stems and the like — by designer Joe Busse and his Kentucky-based company, Applied Imagination.
For example, the front of the replica of the Obamas’ Kenwood home in the Chicago Botanic Garden exhibit is layered with white pine bark and catalpa beans. Tiny flower pots made out of burr oak caps and acorns are set on front steps made from palm stems and sea grape leaves. The front porch is made of honeysuckle, eucalyptus leaves, okra seeds, and magnolia and lotus pod stems. The bricks in Michelle Obama’s childhood home are pine tree bark and the dormers are crafted out of redbud seed pods.
In addition to the Obama home replicas, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Wonderland Express show includes more than 80 other miniatures of Chicago landmarks like Navy Pier, Soldier Field, Millennium Park and the Shedd Aquarium. Wonderland Express is open Nov. 27-Jan. 3, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., (closing at 3 p.m. on Dec. 3 and Dec. 24, and closed all day Dec. 25). Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for children 3-12, and free on Tuesdays through Dec. 23.
At the U.S. Botanic Garden, a model of the White House used in past holiday shows was modified this year to add the White House vegetable garden and a swing set used by the Obama girls. Also new to the Washington garden show is a replica of the National Museum of the American Indian. The sizes of the buildings, which include many other Washington landmarks, range from 7 feet across for the U.S. Capitol to 2 feet across for the Jefferson Memorial.
In the U.S. Botanic Garden’s main train exhibit, trains run through miniature depictions of stories and characters from children’s literature, from “The Owl and the Pussycat” to Cinderella.
The U.S. Botanic Garden show runs Nov. 26-Jan. 10. The garden conservatory is free and open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in December).
The New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show features a model of the original Pennsylvania Station, a McKim, Mead and White building that was demolished in 1964. Its destruction is still mourned by preservationists, and is often cited as having helped inspire the modern-day movement to save historic and architecturally significant buildings. The show also includes miniatures of the original Yankee stadium, Hudson River mansions and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Todd Forrest, vice president for horticulture and living collections at the New York Botanical Garden, said the show typically attracts 160,000 visitors. It started in 1991 with a dozen buildings, now has more than 140 structures, and has become a tradition for many families.