The Georgetown Collection was the first owners and developers of the Magic Attic Club brand at the founding in 1994. The Maine-based company specialized in affordable porcelain dolls. They later sold the line to the Knickerbocker Company.
Magic Attic Club History[]
The Magic Attic Club was founded by Gretchen Springer and Jeff McKinnon of Georgetown Collection; McKinnon was the president. Georgetown Collection had experimented with doll and book collections with the "American Diary Dolls", a set of 16" porcelain dolls focused on various characters in American history in the early 1990s that came with short novels about their respective time periods.
Magic Attic Club was founded in part because Springer and McKinnon felt there was an uncovered section of the American Girl line by Pleasant Company, who at the time only focused on historical characters. Magic Attic Club was intended to focus on modern day characters instead, albeit with a fanciful, imaginative play aspect.
The first release of the dolls and books was a soft-launch catalog in late 1994 to a test market. The line included three characters: Heather Hardin, Alison McCann, and Megan Ryder. Each girl was given a theme color and three individual books. The group book about their introductory adventure, The Secret of the Mirror was listed and stated to be written by Elizabeth Kelly, but the book and several others were never completed. Each of the characters was given a bedroom collection (which included furniture and nightclothes), a holiday/party outfit, and three individual adventures that included detailed outfits and accessories. The company also launched the Magic Attic Club Doll Hospital for repairs.
The soft launch was successful, and a full launch was done with changes to the dolls before then, including a change in face molds for the three characters and the introduction of Keisha Vance. The introductory book was changed to The Secret of the Attic by Sheri Cooper Sinykin and had the four girls meet Ellie Goodwin, who gave them access to her attic and array of costumes and magic mirror.
1996 introduced new starter outfits for the four characters along with a new adventure and accompanying collection for each of them; Alison Walks the Wire, Viva Heather!, Keisha to the Rescue, and Megan's Masquerade.
In 1997 Georgetown Collection sold the Magic Attic Club line to the Knickerbocker Company. They remained as a separate company for some time afterwards but are now defunct.