A few weeks ago, we received an email from Art Walker. He informed us of a project he had undertaken which interested us very much. We thought that it would also be of interest to many of our subscribers, too. Here is what Mr. Walker told us:

"Hello Carolyn and Joel, My name is Art Walker, AKA, Charles Baskerville. I'm a long time member of The Pleasant Places of Florida. Also a long time receiver of your E mail. You also are familiar with two of our leaders, David McCallister and Carl Heifetz. I have read Carl's writings in your newsletters. About the year 1996, I was asked by the director of the program, Learning in Retirement at the University of South Florida, here in Tampa to teach a four hour course on Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. I volunteered and it became a three year stint until I had my fill of carrying my books, collectables, photos, and charts from the car to the second floor classroom. During the second year I began building, from 3/8 inch foam board, a "1" square model of what I believed to be the most accurate plan of Sherlock's apartment taken from one of your contributor's drawings. I don't remember his name but it may have been something simple like "Smith" (eds note: We believe this to be Edward S. Smith, Jr., founder of The American Firm scion, who published a diagramatic layout of the 221b apartment in the late '90s). I finished it by the end of that year and have it in my condo at present."

We were very interested in Mr. Walker's project so we asked him to send some photos and details about his model.

Mr. Walker further volunteered more details of his work:

"More than merely offering my lectures, I took to my classroom much of my collection which I had gathered over ten years. These included: photos, posters of plays and movies, collections of the "Canons", hard backs, paperbacks, collectables, comics, figurines, games, and even a life mask of Basil Rathbone. In my preparation for my third presentation of the course I came across a number of artist renditions of what each thought was the lay-out of Holmes's and Watson's living quarters. Several of the adventures give small insights as to their habitat. Some of the plans in print are nowhere close to the "actual" 221B. When I decided to build this 1 inch scale model of 221B I used the description of the bow window in "The Mazarin Stone" and the plans drawn by "Smith" as the most accurate guide.  I hope you enjoy these pictures and observe some of the familiar items in the rooms that remind you of the stories of the Canon. I suppose I could add that I used "foam board" which is used for presentations for the basic structure of the building. Exacto  knives were used to cut out the window openings and door openings which were filled with scale doors and windows purchased from hobby stores. I built the ledge around the front and the bow window from balsa wood and clear plastic imitation glass. The furnishings were bought from a doll house hobby store as well as the wall paper on the walls. Sherlock's ad on the window was rubbed on the glass from a sheet of alphabet "press-a-ply" letters. Even the miniature knife stuck in the top of the mantel was purchased from a hobby store. I finished the project just before the last class and on that day I struggled to carry it to class along with refreshments and a specially decorated Sherlock Holmes cake baked by my daughter. (We wish we had a picture of the cake, but, we suppose, it was consumed straightaway!)