( notable neighbors -- james levengood )

( notable neighbors -- james levengood )

by jennifer hetrick

boyertown borough resident james levengood easily titles himself a collector of antique toys, as he has a handful of rooms dedicated to the mood-perking artifacts of past childhood playtimes.

his pursuit in quest of toys from decades and sometimes a century away from this one began 30 years ago, starting with an interest in train sets. in the early 1980s, levengood shifted into appreciation for other kinds of old toys besides the ones meant for following the way of their wheels out on pieces of track.

with his collection continually growing, levengood finally sold a few dozen train sets and individual pieces at an auction hosted a few years ago at ridge fire company in spring city because he wanted to make room for more antique toys in his home. the masses of train pieces sold within just a few hours.

as a regular auction-goer, levengood travels to lancaster county most sundays to check out what’s up for bid at morphy’s auctions.

“they all had their niche,” levengood said about toymakers from the early part of the 20th century.

many of the pieces decorating one full room of toys in levengood’s home are cast-iron carriages and wagons of police and fire patrols, and circus trailers, most with horses at the reins. 

one ornamental figure in this relic of a room reaches close to the ceiling—a studio size steiff giraffe. steiff plush toys originate from germany, and levengood suspects his tall african-inspired creature dates back to the 1930s or 1940s.

levengood also has an assortment of steiff plush animals of ordinary size, fitting easily into tiny or adult grips and palms.

in the tune of mingling education and play, levengood has a laura mae play school and also a crandall school play set, the latter complete with even a dunce student among his fellow wooden classmates.

noah’s ark, aged boats, an erector airship, fabric children’s books, and an oversized store display pencil hanging from a wooden beam in his main floor toy room are just a hint of the samplings of reminders of childhood nostalgia from when toy making happened largely in the u.s. and at the hands of people more often than just machines.

in the past, levengood’s home has been on the boyertown open house tour in winter, as his wide range of antique toys are a sight all their own worth a tiny museum status.

to keep in line with the healthily filled upstairs room of toystoystoys, levengood’s basement is tucked to the brim with a whole other mishmash of games and play sets.

the space includes a humpty dumpty circus, cast-iron doorstops in the shape of dogs in a range of breeds, a miniature washing machine, replica shops and homes, with quite a few gas station platforms, an of course red-painted coke bottle machine, vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and purposes, posters, and catchy-themed advertisements.

a small collection of powdered grey-blue cast-iron hubley motorcycles showcasing the slogan say it with flowers, with a clockwork mechanism per vehicle, sits close to the steps to the upstairs. the motorcycles were made between 1925 and 1935.

as a member of the antique toy collectors of america, levengood often travels to conventions to eye-scoop toys he’s never seen.

“the search” to try to find specific toys is what levengood said he finds most gravitating about collecting the persuasion of his favorite type of antiques.

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