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Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.

Historic Enchanted Village holiday display to be auctioned June 18

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.

BOSTON – Enchanted Village, a famous New England department store holiday display, will be sold at auction June 18. Stanley J. Paine Auctioneers will sell the attraction in its entirety as one lot. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.  

Stanley J. Paine Auctioneers will hold a three-day preview of the Enchanted Village from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 15-17 at the auction site, Three Dolphin Way in South Boston. Qualified bidders who put up a refundable $25,000 deposit will be able to closely examine the display on those days.

Occupying 8,000 square feet, the historic Enchanted Village is an animated re-creation of a holiday scene in a traditional New England town. The village inhabitants consist of 59 figures of both adults and children, as well as additional figures of bears, dogs, cats and horses. The average lifelike figure is 4 feet 8 inches tall. Scenes include caroling and sleigh rides.

Visiting the Enchanted Village has been a cherished holiday tradition for generations of New Englanders. In the 1930s, David Callahan, a buyer and vice president of the Massachusetts-based department store chain Jordan Marsh, negotiated with toy makers in Bavaria to bring to Boston the handmade electromechanical animated figures and items that comprise the Historic Enchanted Village.

Jordan Marsh installed Enchanted Village Christmas marketing enticement inside its flagship store in Boston’s Downtown Crossing in the 1940s. Generations of New Englanders grew to cherish visiting Enchanted Village, making the pilgrimage one of their most beloved holiday traditions.

At the height of its popularity Enchanted Village took over an entire floor of the department store and was also spotlighted in its display windows. At one point, annual attendance reached 250,000.

Jordan Marsh closed the exhibit in 1972, but brought it out of mothballs in 1990.

In 1996, the last of the Jordan Marsh stores were renamed Macy’s. When Macy’s discontinued Enchanted Village in 1998, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino moved it to City Hall Plaza. More recently it has been housed in the Hynes Convention Center and displayed by the city until 2006. The Boston Globe reported that dwindling attendance forced the city to close the attraction.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.
Scene from Enchanted Village, to be auctioned on June 18, 2009. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.