Denny Dobry's open house, 30 Sep 2023

Yesterday (Saturday 30 Sep) I drove up to the Reading PA area to visit Denny Dobry's remarkable open house. Featured was a tour of his 221b Baker Street sitting room recreation, and a Book Fair for the Benefit of the Baker Street Irregulars Trust. Of course, there were many who came along for the open day and it was great to see friends and make some new one. From memory I recall people coming from PA, NJ, MD, VA, NH, RI, DE and TX and there of course many others!

Thank you  so much to Denny and Joann for their kindness and hospitality.

The Baker Street study was truly amazing. The rooms have received plenty of attention in Sherlockian media, so I'll place a couple of links here to start, then give a little description of a few observations.

Dan Andriacco blog interview with Denny:  http://bakerstreetbeat.blogspot.com/2020/01/interviewing-denny-dobry-of-221b.html  

Fourth Garrideb blog post on recreations: https://fourthgarrideb.com/author/denny-dobry/

Article in the Reading Eagle newspaper: https://www.readingeagle.com/2017/02/15/floor-plans-his-love-of-sherlock-holmes-led-to-a-basement-makeover/

This is a stock photo of Denny's 221B Study. Better than any photo I could take with my iPhone.

So with those articles, I can say that Denny's recreation is remarkable. When you head down the stairs (17?) and turn right, you enter another world. One can wander the room, examining items that reflect the way to room is described in the stories, and planted with 'easter egg' evidence items from each of the 60 stories. The photos I've taken tell a better story - I think my favorite features were the books on the shelves (for example the encyclopedia copied out in the 'Red Headed League'), and the windows with a panorama of the street view outside with speakers playing sounds from the street such as the clip-clop of hooves passing by.

I'll start with the introduction that Denny gave on the room, and how it came to be:

Paul Churchill is the Sherlockian in MD that Denny mentions. Paul also created the 'Evidence Boxes' that are held by the 'Watson' Tin Box' scion of Ellicott City MD - I recently posted about Paul and his artifacts here: https://221bcooee.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-evidence-boxes-of-watsons-tin-box.html 

Denny displaying and explaining the air rifle from 'The Empty House'.

The best shot I could take of the entire room. 

Of course I took particular interest in the deal-topped table where chemical experiments take place. The table is conveniently located next to one of the windows looking down on Baker Street, which helps with fumes.

At the other end of the room is Watson's writing desk, with his indexed volumes easily within reach.

A hypodermic needle and syringe, able to administer a 7% solution.....

A magnifying glass atop the writing desk.

A range of items are close at hand on the table near the fireplace, including a pipe, a copy of the Strand, a revolver, and a copy of The Times.

 

The second part of the visit was the Book Fair. A huge area of the basement is arranged for storing and displaying books and other items. These items are donated by people (for example, who are down-sizing their collections) and proceeds of the sale benefits the BSI Trust (www.bsitrust.org). 

This is a stock photo of Denny's 221B Study. Amazingly, this photo does not do the area justice - the back area has a huge book and magazine area.

So what did I buy? Full disclosure, I was going in very fiscally restrained. The event took place on the day the government was going to shut down and i was VERY worried about finances. But I found a few things I was really pleased about.

The Nezire Zanmai International. I've been collecting these for a while now - there are 14 volumes of this journal, and I'm now only missing one issue. After two or three issues, the journal was re-named to The Shoso-In Bulletin. You can learn more about this Japanese Sherlockian publication here: https://shoso.ninja-web.net/Shoso-inBulletin/index.html

ACD - The Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society. I've always wanted to read an issue of this journal, so was glad to find three, so that I can learn more about Doylean scholarship generally.

Irene's Cabinet is the annual Sherlockian publication of Watson's Tin Box of Ellicott City. As a member, I'd hoped to start gathering back-issues at some point. This was a good start, including issues 1, 2 and 3. The really beautiful thing about the first three issues is that almost every article author has signed to Table of Contents, including Paul Churchill (referenced by Denny above).

I really enjoy digging into the early publications of ACD in the Strand Magazine. I have a digital copy of this book from the author Phil Bergem, and was very glad to find a printed copy. Now all I need to do is collect The Strand Magazine itself.... 

William Gillette, America's Sherlock Holmes. I've never been to Gillette Castle, but it's very high on my list. I'm looking forward to reading this book.

So yes, I could have purchased ten times more than I did, but I am really glad to have had the opportunity to visit Denny, Joann and his family, and can't thank the Dobry family enough for their hospitality. There will, I am sure, be Open House events in future years and I'll be there!