LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE HOUSE

This “Little Orphan Annie House” dollhouse was built and donated to the Lombard Historical Society at Carriage House behind the Victorian Cottage. The address is 23 W. Maple Street, Lombard IL 60148 so please check out for more information here.

The dollhouse is a replica of Little Orphan Annie‘s creator Harold Gray‘s house, which is actually called the Dr. LeRoy House.

The full-sized, three-story framed LeRoy House is located at 119 N. Main Street in Lombard. The Italianate architectural style house was built in 1881 for Dr. William LeRoy, a well-known physician, who specialized in making prosthetic limbs for Civil War veterans. He was originally a carpenter. The house was then bought by a local Lombard resident Harold Gray for his parents in 1890 (or 1900).

Harold Gray was an artist at Chicago Tribune at the time and in 1924, “Little Orphan Annie” cartoon strip was created. He lived there at that house when he dreamed up his story line in the study.

So this large Victorian house is now known as “Little Orphan Annie House”.

Little Orphan Annie was a fictional character who represented Ovaltine, which has connected the Village of Lombard to Villa Park in Illinois – by approximately 3.5 miles. Lombard is a now home of Dr. LeRoy House/Little Orphan Annie and Villa Park houses the Ovaltine Factory.

Since the real Dr. LeRoy House is not open to public, please contact the Lombard Historical Museum for more information about gaining entrance to this historical site.

In case if you are wondering; this wonderfully large dollhouse model was made by Woodline Products back in the late 1970’s and/or early 1980’s – made primarily of masonite, making it extremely sturdy. I’m not sure their vintage dollhouse model kit are available today…