Lake Erie Lives

The baby carriage held court at an aunt’s house, something to be looked upon but never touched — especially not by small, pigtailed children. Twins Janet and Judy were fascinated nonetheless by this symbol of motherhood and child care. So when they grew up, they filled an entire house with carriages they can touch all they want.

PHOTO: JERRY MANN

Wicker baby carriages compete for space in each and every room of their humble digs at the world’s only, the world’s finest, the world’s most comprehensive Victorian Perambulator Museum and Art Gallery. Each carriage is prettier and more intricate than the last. The artisans of yore embellished these functional baby buggies with seashells, leaves and vines, sea horses and swans, curlicues of all shapes and sizes.

This endless display of Victorian craftsmanship is located in a former house about an hour east of Cleveland in Jefferson, Ohio — a modest showcase for an entirely immodest assortment of antique toys, dolls … and, most importantly, more than 200 perambulators.

“It’s a national treasure,” explains Janet Pallo, one half of the small-in-stature, seismic-in-force duo that’s accumulated this stash. Pallo runs and stocks the museum with her twin, Judy Kaminski.

“We are best friends,” says Pallo. “The only thing we disagree on sometimes is what doll’s going to show off our carriage the best.”

The duo are adorably petite, with matching long red hair and soft-spoken yet insistent manners — a reminder, perhaps, of their lifelong teaching careers (Pallo taught fifth, Kaminski, second). The women are serious when it comes to their museum. They’ve been on their hunt for 38 years, and they’ll go to great lengths to land a new acquisition.

Sometimes, the only thing to do is wait it out.

“One carriage took us 20 years to get — it’s called the Emperor’s Carriage,” says Pallo, and it’s the rarest perambulator in the United States. She won’t divulge its cost, noting only that some carriages here are worth as much as a car — and if their current insurer drops them, they’ll have to approach Lloyd’s of London.

The Emperor’s Carriage is loaded with scrollwork, pillars, even a mansion crafted into the wicker. The previous owner held on to the piece for years, displaying it at an amusement park in Northern Michigan, despite continual requests from the twins. When the park closed, the carriage came home to Jefferson. “We finally got the carriage after 20 years of waiting,” says Pallo, “and that’s a fantastic piece of history and artwork.”

The girls’ father was a collector, too, although his inclination lay toward carousels. Reminders of him grace the entryway of the museum: a carousel horse takes center stage in the former living room, and two miniature, working carousels are turned on for guests to marvel at. Fanciful collection is in their blood.

The twins’ young love for that first carriage never dimmed. As adults, Kaminski found the carriage that would officially begin the collection. “That’s where it all started,” says Pallo. “When I saw hers, I said, there’s got to be something more elaborate than that.” She found a perambulator in Gettysburg, Pa., that had survived the Civil War, and it was the beginning of a worldwide search for ever better and more impressive carriages.

One of the largest showpieces in the collection is a bright-red, miniature horse-drawn carriage created for Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret to ride around Buckingham Palace when they were children, and the latest piece they’re working to obtain is a carriage uncovered after 30 years of storage in Paris.

“We have a zest for life,” says Pallo matter-of-factly. “This is what we sought after. We knew we arrived this year, when people started writing ‘awesome’ in our guest book. But we’ll never stop seeking out the best of the best.”

The museum is open on Saturdays from May to December and on Wednesdays from June to August. Any other time, groups are welcome by appointment. 26 E. Cedar St., Jefferson, Ohio; 440-576-9588, perambulatormuseum.com