“Sweetheart,” Sue Johnson's doll (left) and Richard Glidden's charm collection will be among the vintage toys and dolls displayed as part of the annual Toy/Doll Show Sunday, Dec. 2, noon-4 p.m., at the Joseph F. Glidden Homestead and Historical Center (Photos by Kathy Vance Siebrasse)

Toys, dolls highlight Holiday Open House  

     Pre-1950s toys and dolls of all types will be featured at the annual Holiday Open House at DeKalb’s Joseph F. Glidden Homestead and Historical Center.
     You remember….marbles and jacks, trains and scooters, skates, toy soldiers, baby buggies and dolls of every description!
     The free event is planned Sunday, Dec. 2, noon-4 p.m., at the Homestead located at 921 W. Lincoln Hwy., between Copy Service and Burger King. 
     Local residents will exhibit toys and dolls from their collections throughout the Homestead, including many items especially for boys.
     An ornament-making project will be offered for children on the Homestead’s lower level.
     The Holiday Open House also will feature tours of the festively decorated house, educational displays, music and refreshments.
     The Homestead’s Gift Shop will be open that day as well, offering many unique barbed wire items unavailable anywhere else. A two-volume hardbound Glidden Genealogy set, newly-designed Glidden Homestead patch and barbed wire cap also are among the items featured in the Gift Shop.
     The Joseph F. Glidden Homestead and Historical Center is the site where Glidden invented “The Winner” barbed wire, for which he received a patent Nov. 24, 1874. It became the most widely-used type of barbed wire in the world.
     The Homestead is an emerging museum dedicated to preserving the house and barn on the site. Future plans include the addition of a Welcome/Innovation Center and restoration of the barn as a museum space.
     For more information about the Holiday Open House or Glidden Homestead, call (815) 756-7904.