Six-year-old thrilled to win Pierce House raffle

William Kaluzniacki sits proudly next to the Pierce House dollhouse he recently won in a raffle (click to enlarge).

William Kaluzniacki of Lincoln won the Pierce House dollhouse raffle, and he couldn’t be happier—fixing up dollhouses is his thing, even though he’s only six.

“This is perfect—he really loves carpentry, and he’s always creating small-scale furniture at home,” said his mother, Joanna Wills. Her son got interested in carpentry after his older brother took wood shop and made some furniture at Belmont Hill School, and he’s already working on a dollhouse project, His Lincoln School teacher, Siobhan Rooney, let him take her mother’s dollhouse home to make some minor repairs.

The Pierce House dollhouse was originally owned by Barbara Frentz Kurson, an interior designer and decorator who lived in Concord. She commissioned the Pierce House replica dollhouse and decorated it with furniture. After her death, her daughter, Robin Frentz Isaacs of Lincoln, donated it to the Pierce House. The proceeds from the raffle will help fund ongoing maintenance and repairs to the full-size version of the house, which was built in 1900.  

The dollhouse is in pretty good shape overall, and repairs will be a lot easier because it came with all the original documentation, paints and other materials. So far, William has replaced some of the tiny cedar shakes on the roof “and maybe a mullion or two,” and he even made a miniature table saw and ladder to sit outside the house to show it’s under construction. He might even install electric lighting inside, she said.

“It’s given him a little more of a creative outlet,” Wills said. “He looks forward to showing it to everyone who comes to the house.”