26 years ago, we began at the kitchen table

It was 1981 when Marlene Whiting took a basket full of her homemade folk art to a gift shop in historic Hilton Village VA. These were the wooden hearts and such that Truman had cut with a band saw and she handpainted. Soon, Marlene was commissioned to make miniature buildings based on those in Hilton Village. Another order came from Colonial Williamsburg (today we're their official miniature house builder), and Brandywine was off and running.

We're still based in Yorktown, but we've outgrown the kitchen table.
And the house. And the garage. And our first manufacturing facility. We've gone from two to more than 20 employees. We’ve gone from paper and pencil to computers and lasers.

One thing hasn't changed: Marlene still designs every Brandywine building. Truman sometimes operates the woodcutting machinery, plays with the laser every chance he gets, handles day-to-day operations and is our president/CEO in 1994. Daughter Donna helps Marlene with design, product development and marketing. (She’s the one to blame for this web site, for example.)

Learn more
about Marlene Whiting