The Resurrection of
Lit Brothers
Enchanted Colonial Village
(A . B e h i n d . t h e . S c e n e s . V i e w )

( E n g i n e e r s . E n t r a n c e )

These are the pages detailing the refurbishment of the ...
Historical Colonial Enchanted Village of Philadelphia.
( For similar pages with more general info about the history of the village and what it is etc. click here )

The Village is what`s left of a 15-building christmas display (with 37 remaining animated figures) created for Lit Bros dept. store (Philadelphia) in 1966.
(Created by german-animatronics-company Christian Hofmann ..by the way ..their promo-cd has the creeepy animatronic clown with a blinking hat in front of a black backdrop speaking german ..very disturbing ..i`d recommend it to anyone in the business :)

Lit-Bros closed in the 70`s and the Village is now considered to be very historical (though it`s only 40yrs old) there`s been alot of talk in the press on and off as to "what`s going to become of the Enchanted Village!?" with pictures and descriptions of how Horribly it`s being stored "Again" (..and Again and Again)

It really wasn`t meant to be "set-up" repeatedly,
(originally Lit Bros set it up "Once" and left it)
So parts and figures and buildings have been lost, and broken, and sold and repaired (badly) that
Please Touch Museum is now finally going to give it one big refurbishment.
(Notice I don`t say restoration because the attitude is basically not just to get it back the way it was but to get it back the way it was AND make it stronger so it`ll survive the coming years, upgrade the motor systems with internal motors etc., add some of our own figures since so many have disappeared over the years (complete with the villages "first" african american figure : ) heh heh
(the plan is to make a family in a year or so)
and on and on)
(..we`re even adding interactive elements etc.)

ok enough typing ..on with some pics