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MakinG Matchstick Marvels
From its tiny mullioned
windows to its gargoyle-festooned towers, woodworker Pat
rick Actons model of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry, the boarding-house home of Hollywood's favor
ite teenage wizard, Harry’ Potter, is an amazingly detailed
replica. The real magic, though, is that it’s made entirely of
matchsticks—6()2.o(X) of them
Hogwarts may be the most grandiose project under
taken yet by this Michelangelo of matchsticks, but playing
with matches is a 30-year hobby for Acton. In 1977, he built
his first matchstick model, a high-steeple church, at his
kitchen table in Gladbrook, lowa (pop. 1,015). Back then,
his only aim was to while away the icy Midwestern winter.
“But it slowly became a passion," he says.
Since then. Acton, 53, has used little more than tipless
wooden matches, sand]saper and gallons of carpenters glue
to piece together 60 models of buildings, ships, animals
and people. Among his collection: Pinocchio, the USS lowa
battleship and a 200,(XX)-stick CMlm&er space shuttle. Yet
for years, few people outside his family even knew about
Actons quirky' talent.
That changed in 1993, when 15
of his sculptures were snapped up for
exhibit by Ripley's Believe It or Not!
museums. The draw', explains Edward
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Grownups and kids alike are spellbound by Acton’s
re-creation of Hogwarts, the boarding-house home
of boy wizard Harry Potter in five Hollywood films.
Meyer, vice president of Ripley’s exhibits
and archives, is how Acton's matchstick
models turn something so commonplace
into things of beauty.
"I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say Pat is the
best we've ever seen," Meyer says.
The grandson of an expert stoneworker, whose
artistic instinct he seems to have inherited, Acton
says he was “the kind of kid who tore everything
apart because I wanted to see how it worked."
Acton builds in pieces rather than from the ground
up. “My son suggested that I paint the first matchstick in a
model red so I could point it out to people,” he says.
Selling some of his models to Ripley’s was a boon for
Acton, who continues to work full-time as a college career
counselor in lowa Falls (pop. 5,193) and Marshalltown, lowa
(pop. 26,009). Yet, because each model represented so much
time and energy, it felt like a loss. “I decided I wanted to
keep most of the stuff I’d made here in lowa," he says. “But
I was raising three kids and didn’t really have the money to
invest in a building to display the models permanently.”
In 2(X)(), the farming community of Gladbrook came
to the rescue. With donated funds, grant money and vol
unteer labor, rite town built a brand-new edifice on main
street to hoase not only a museum for Actons work, but
also a city hall rind the town’s first movie theater. To seal the
deal. Acton gave five of his biggest and best creations to the
town, no strings attached.
Since opening day in 2(X)3, the Matchstick Marvels
Courtesy of Pdf ck-Actor.
Page 10
•www.americanprofile.com
Patrick Acton's
intricately detailed
replicas of famous
buildings and other
creations are made
of tipless wooden
match-sticks.