Many people find success by thinking bigger. For Jim Flowers, it's all about thinking smaller.
Flowers, who lives in Marietta, has been creating scale replicas of the façades of local buildings for the past few years. He typically works in a scale of one inch to one foot and completes the façades in painstaking detail, including bricks, shingles, stones and shutters.
Beginning in 1995, Jim operated Flowers in the Kitchen, an Elizabethtown-based restaurant, with his wife, Pollyann, and his daughter, Laura. While there, he created his first façade when he replicated the restaurant. The business eventually closed, and Jim didn't think about doing another façade until his wife passed away three years ago. "I had nothing to do, and I needed something to do," Jim said simply, describing how he got into the work.
Jim has always had a creative side. He and his wife sold handmade items at craft shows throughout the region, featuring Pollyann's counted cross stitch and Jim's wooden folk art. His façade work is all self-taught, he said. To start a project, Jim finds a building that strikes his fancy. "Most of the time, I'll get permission to make one, but if someone says 'no,' I'll probably do it anyway," he stated with a laugh. "I pick something I like, I measure it and I take pictures." He also creates custom blueprints, making a layout of the building's windows, doors and other special features.
His replicas typically begin with a frame of one-by-three-inch plywood. He then constructs the façade in detail, with special attention paid to paint colors and materials. Although he strives for accuracy, he will make one exception: "I put candles in each window," he explained. "Even if you don't have candles in the window of your house, I'm putting them in there. They look nice."
Jim can spend up to 80 hours working on a façade. He's quick to point out that although that's technically two weeks of work, at 40 hours a week, he's not putting in long days. At 83, he's taking his time to complete each façade. "I might work an hour, then take a nap," he said. "Sometimes, I'll work for half an hour in a day. Some days, I'll work for a few hours at a time."
His façade workshop is set up in the living room of the home he shares with his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
Over the years, he's completed façades of buildings throughout Lancaster County, including the Marietta Community House, the Maytown Historical Society museum, the Haldeman Mansion and countless private homes.
Building the replicas not only fills his days with purpose, Jim said, but it allows him to indulge his creativity on his own schedule, and he doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. "I do what I want when I want and how I want," he said. "I just enjoy it."
Jim will take orders for façades of homes or businesses. For more information, call him at 717-333-0593.
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