India, Oct. 29 -- The Civic Center Cottage in Rockville, Maryland, is a full-size playhouse. Although it was designed as a child's retreat, the small house has survived for decades and remains part of the historic grounds of Glenview Mansion at Rockville Civic Center Park. The City of Rockville records its construction cost at $23,000, an extraordinary sum for a playhouse at the time.

The report states that the Glenview property became a country estate belonging to the Lyon family outside Washington, D.C. Dr. James Alexander Lyon and his wife, Irene, had one daughter, Elizabeth Moore Lyon, known as Betsy, who was born in 1926. In the 1930s, Dr. Lyon came across designs for a doll's house in a movie magazine and decided to turn the idea i...