All Dolled Up
America embraced the American Girl dolls.
Aurora, New York, wasnt so welcoming.
(He used to cut their grass, he explains.)
Then, he leans over to tell me Im sitting in the ladies room.
Sure enough, Im sitting in the ladies room.
Finally, I realize: Hes talking about this bars layout during the B.P.
She eventually purchased those two properties outright, and began buying more.
Of course, this was all filtered through the discerning lens of Rowland.
Is that so much to ask for?).
How Rowland, now 81, feels about her newfound place in the zeitgeist is unclear.
(Through a spokesperson, she declined a request for an interview.
The spokesperson also declined a request for comment on anything unrelated to the Inns of Aurora.
But those close to her say its par for the course.
The only difference is Pleasants contradictions over the years have played out in a public way.
They married six months later.
Buyers for toy stores didnt get it.
(She also took out a handful of ads in places like theNew Yorker.)
In 1994, she told theLos Angeles Timesshe considered herself a Mother Superior throw in to her staffers.
The passion with which she spoke about her vision was something that touched me.
As one former employee put it, Pleasant doesnt do dark.
(Both stories ultimately ran, however.)
These girls dont know them and theyre hungry for them.
Porter agreed with this direction.
I didnt want her to be just defined by being a slave, Porter says.
I didnt see what purpose that served.
I didnt want her to be a perpetual victim.
It was important to see Addy as being just as viable as an American Girl as Molly or Felicity.
Rowland, for her part, ultimately declared Addy a resounding success.
We made a black doll an object of status and desire for white children.
Rowland applied her unshakable vision to all aspects of the business, no matter how seemingly trivial.
The thing about Pleasant she was dead serious.
Theres no irony, no wink-wink when it came to her work, says a former staffer.
That steadfast earnestness was on display during a campaign event in Madison for Barack Obama.
Before he could say a word, she presentedhimwith American Girl promotional materials.
But Obama didnt miss a beat.
He responded very enthusiastically Sasha and Malia love American Girl dolls!
This is great, or something to that effect.
The result was a mostly positive piece about a local business reaching meteoric heights.
(Im the only guest who has shown up on this particular day.)
Pleasant likes it clean without being antiseptic, the guide says of her aesthetic.
Whats clean and whats antiseptic is up for debate.
Certainly, there are elements to Aurora that feel undeniably Epcot-esque.
It wasnt done for historical accuracy.
It was just Pleasants vision, a person familiar with the situation said.
So she got it.
Cars around town began to sport bumper stickers bearing the slogan Aurora was Pleasant Before.
(The Devil Wears Prada, infamously inspired by Anna Wintour,had recently come out without issue.)
A shop owner there gave me a piece of her mind…
But Ive always been an agnostic who likes a good story.
Aurora wasnt Rowlands first experience with angering a town.
), but the town refused her a permit citing zoning regulations.
In response, Rowland threatened to move the house before ultimately pulling up stakes.
With commercial real estate, she had free rein an unchecked power that residential communities never gave her.
I just simply saved a town that was crumbling, Rowland told theWall Street Journal.
My work there is completed.
Of course, Rowland reversed course.
But the institutions shes built in Aurora are hardly nonprofits.
This article was originally published onSep.
