By HARRY A. PACKARD 



SHELBURN N H—Death and vandalism have bared 

 the secret of the Mysterious village in the mountains here. 



Sst came the tragic death of H. R. Moller, designer 

 and builder of what is perhaps the world's strangest settle- 

 tnent. Then came the curioys throng, so long demed by 

 padlm:ked gates, the chance to see what was gomg on m the 

 forest wonderland. They have ruined the village. 



The village of mystery is builded on the very large tract 

 of lanc^'owned by Charles Stone of the firm of Stone & Web^ 

 ster Mr Stone, as well as Miss Gates, owner of the land 

 until its recJnt purchase by Mr Stone, have hadj no trespass 

 signs liberally sprinkled along the highway that fronts the 

 "village but their efforts no more stem the tide of those who 

 come forcibly to see than does protest avail against a sudden 

 I Stimmef shower. 



Nature Keclaims Spot 



Acting without authority of the' de- 

 scendants, it there are any, but 

 prompted hy a love for the beautiful, 

 Miss Gates has caused many of the 

 furnishings of the village of mystery 

 to be removed to a place of safer 

 keeping. 



But coupled with the efforts of 

 those who seek to destroy this thing 

 which they call queer, but which 

 It pleases the writer to call a 

 thing of extraordinary sentlmelital 

 ■beauty are the ravages of na;ture. 

 Be'fore long the forest will creep 

 down and reposess the land. 



Briefly, the facts of the mysterious 

 Village— as seen in the eyes of the 

 curious throng— are that Mr Moller, 

 well-known in his Winter home. In 

 Washington, D C, came here a quar- 

 ter century ago, 1901 to be exact, and 

 built a tiny village deep in the sylvan 

 wilderness. Everything about the 

 architecture is cunningly contrived 

 and building was done by a master 

 hand. Even to the wooden hinges 

 that support the rustic doors there Is 

 evident the skill of an artisan. 



Years of Labor Represented. 



Not hours of labor, not days, not 

 fweeks — but years and years of pains- 

 taking building and designing went 

 Jnto the village. 



There is a tiny church, smaller 

 than the entrance of even a village 

 (^Ifice, all complete with diamond- 

 Bhaped windtows, with stately open 

 jporch at front, with curiously con- 

 trived doors m keeping with the 

 Btructure. The church Is complete 

 With blinds and even to the spire and 

 hung therein— high up in the belfry— 

 the bell to eummona the worshipers 

 to Sabbath morning service. 



Moller himself was leader of the 

 worship held within the white struc- 

 ture and his mother the only "con- 

 gregation" who ever worshipped 

 within the sacred portals. 1 



With a voice of sadness the inhabi- 

 tants of the valley below, who knew 

 Moller and respected him in his fixed 

 purposes tell how they miss the 

 Bweet-toned bell that often on a Sab- 

 bath evening in June-time tolled ; 

 from the tiny belfry and its clang- 

 ing reverberated among the majestic 

 hills that tower over Shelburn. 



Then there would be heard the or- 

 gan within the tiny church playing 

 an interlude and MoUer's strong 

 voice singing a hymn, and the hills 

 would bring back the echo. Strange, 

 Indeed, It was to hear him. 



Theatre Dozen Feet Wide 



Then Moller built a tiny theatre 

 Bcarcely a dozen feet wide and some 

 15 feet long. The door Is faced up 

 of slabs of spruce, cunningly con- 

 trived to resemble log cabin archi- ; 

 tecture or after the style of the 

 cabin that John Burroughs built 

 which it pleased him to call "slab 

 Bides." X 



There Is a tiny ticket window, 



where the pasteboards "for the eve- 

 ning performance" might be sold, 

 and an entrance into the orchestra. 

 Seats were not added — that being 

 one of the jobs that Moller left un- 

 finished. 



The interior of the theatre build- 

 ing is pleasingly nished. The en- 

 trance is ornamented with scroll 

 designs worked out with a back- ! 

 ground on which he fastened inch- 

 wide strips of pine painted a pleas- 

 ing Is pleasingly finished. The en- 

 Inal and beautiful. The windows are 

 of miniature size, two feet wide and 

 3 or 4 feet tall and the many panes 

 of glass are diamond shaped. 



] The general effect of the theatre 

 ■ interior is black in order that mov- 

 ing pictures — if a projecting machine 

 tiny and with short focus enough 

 could be obtaln^ed — might be shown 

 without any wall reflection to dis- 

 tracts the light. 



Temple of Music Nearby 

 A little apart from this movin& 

 picture theatre Moller built what he 

 called his "Grecian Temple of Mu- 

 sic." The tiny structure is well in 

 keeping with the severe and heavy 

 lines of ancient architecture. The 

 building is hardly high enough far 

 a man to stand erect in; has a flat 

 roof contrived into a roof garden or 

 f bandstand effect, railed in with rus- 

 tia spruce posts and with stairs 

 leading to a lower landing — all of 

 rustic construction- the interweav- 

 i Ing of small limbs into posts of 

 spruce, charmingly lending them- 

 selves to the forest trees whose 

 friendly branches overhang the | 

 structure. 



There Is a tiny dollhouse store, a i 

 tiny cabin for his mother, a tiny 

 cabin for Moller himself, doghouses, 

 pigeon .lofts, open-air restaurants 

 and an almost endless number of 

 rustic seatp beneath the trees, with 

 rustic tables where the village beaus 

 might court beneath the canopy of 

 stars. 



Theory of Broken Heart 



There are those of the village folk 

 nearby who couple this strange vil- 

 lage of the wood with ideas that 

 Moller may have loved and lost and 

 worshipped here the spirit of a fair 

 maiden. Upon this phase the writer 

 'passes no comment but accepts the 

 explanation of his mother that she 

 had taken the young man abroad and 

 on endless trips on this continent but 

 that there remained but one thing 



