The SD Collection & Display

Scott D. of Virginia invited me to view his souvenir building collection recently. He began collecting while still in high school, about 20 years ago. His ‘alpha’ souvenir building was a silver 1930’s Empire State Building. He’s mostly attracted to buildings made for tourists and unusual presentation pieces. Scott is not sure of the exact number of buildings in his collection, “I stopped counting at 1,000, but I have at least 3,000. I need to do a building census,” he said. The collection is displayed in two different homes and two different cities. He has many unusual and rare replicas some of which I will write about in upcoming posts to Building Collector. “I like building that do things.” he said. On his desk, you’ll see that he makes full use of his souvenir building desk set, pen holders and even metal building scissors. His most unusual piece a spherical Stockholm Globe Arena metal replica. His favorite souvenir building is a large Eiffel Tower with a drawer for matches, strike plate and cigar cutter from early 1900’s. He bought it from an antique store on the ‘installment plan.’ Someday, he’d like to acquire a Johnson Wax Lighter. Scott doesn’t see an end to his collecting, “I find something new all the time.”