AMERICANA OVERLOAD


Given the adorably contradictory title of "World's Largest Miniature Village" by the Guinness Book of World Records, Miniature Village is a manditory stop for anyone with the good fortune of finding themselves in Shartlesville, PA off the I-78.

Laurence Gierenger started building the village in the early 30s after realizing he had a fascination with small things because- this is amazing- as a boy he thought that distant buildings were actually tiny and didnt realize that they were simply really, really far away. It also inlcudes a "night pageant" every half hour with projected images of Jesus with the American flag and a very tinny sounding God Bless America. There are over 1000 handcarved trees, and hundreds of moving parts- this photo doesnt do Miniature Village justice in the least.
its seriously far out!!

8 comments:

  1. there's really a place called Shartlesville? Funny. A "shartle" is what we call the unfortunate occurance when someone frightens you and you shart your pants. Good times.

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  2. "He had a fascination with small things..." GOD BLESS AMERICAN, amen.

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  3. When maximalism meets the microscopic!

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  4. wow. i did not know about this guy. I have to check this place out...for some reason it makes me think of the legendary bruce bickford and the miniature claymation sets he created for frank zappa's films. A great doc on bruce: "monster road".

    thanks for the inspiration.

    cheers,

    2or3

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  5. i've been here, and it's amazing. completely worth the admission fee. then at the end of the "show" a cross and an american flag on one end of the wall light up. it's huge though, about the size of a small warehouse.

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  6. I've actually been there, and it's really called Roadside America. It truly is amazing. It comes with a brochure full of malarkey about how the creator was inspired to create it when he climbed a high tree as a child and saw the way his hometown looked in miniature...or something.
    Either way, great. I'm so happy to see this blogged about.

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  7. i've been here, and it's amazing. completely worth the admission fee. then at the end of the "show" a cross and an american flag on one end of the wall light up. it's huge though, about the size of a small warehouse.

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