When it opens in celebration of its 35th anniversary on Saturday, Kamin Science Center’s locally iconic 83- by 30-foot Miniature Railroad & Village — which over the years has become peppered with 60 recreations of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania landmarks — will for the first time include an exact replica of Bellevue’s Andrew Bayne Memorial Library.
The actual library that inspired the piece crafted and hand-painted by the center’s model-making team is a three-story Victorian mansion, complete with a pitched gabled roof supported by decorative carved corbels and a large asymmetrical front porch that is surrounded by a four-acre park. It has served its neighborhood as an “anchor” since 1927. (Over half Bellevue’s population has a library card, according to library officials.)
The new piece crafted in its honor is uber-detailed, featuring the decorative pediments found above each window and even the “Lone Sentinel,” a historic elm tree that once called its grounds home. Inside, the fully furnished rooms feature miniature bookshelves, historic marbled fireplaces and other intricate details found in the genuine article itself…