For all the outsider royalty represented in Dumont’s home, his favorite items are a pair of multi-pronged hat racks crafted from rhododendron roots, their tips carved into animal heads. The artist is unknown, though Dumont suspects they were made in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County (Amish country) in the 19th century. "I just think they are incredible and beautiful and whimsical," he says.

Surely the choice says something about the collector. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a prominent chin and a full head of white hair, Dumont approaches his art collecting with a child’s wide-eyed wonder. Maybe this has something to do with his day job: Dumont is the director of inpatient psychiatry for children and pre-adolescents at KidsPeace Hospital, a facility for kids from 3 to 18 in Orefield, Pennsylvania. When Dumont comes across a piece of art that moves him, he can barely contain himself. "Most dealers like me because I don’t have a very good poker face," he says. "If someone has something that’s really great, I’ll go, ‘Oh my God!’ I just sort of lose it."

That Dumont may favor self-taught artists should come as no surprise, as he considers himself a self-taught collector. He started with folk art slowly 20 years ago, when he was living in Manhattan, then kicked it up a notch in 1991, when he and Martin Gould, his partner of 21 years, bought a weekend home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, an art-rich town on the Delaware River. "Once I moved to Pennsylvania and I had access to all these great dealers in this area, then I think it really helped the passion blossom," Dumont says.

He began to explore local flea markets and galleries, honing his taste. He got to know the owners of a local shop, Olde Hope Antiques, where he bought the rhododendron hat racks and many other items. "He was starting to see this whole new world of outsider art opening up," says co-owner Edwin Hild. "The Folk Art Museum in New York City started to focus on outsider art. This was the direction that Larry was going. He was a little bit ahead of them in that regard."

Dumont generally stays away from auctions—too rich for his budget, he says—trusting instead in select dealers, such as John Ollman at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia and Frank Maresca of Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York. He also relies on voracious research; impulse buys are not his style. He says the most he’s ever spent on a single item was $75,000, for the Edmondson sculpture, purchased from Ricco/Maresca. "The truth is, even though I make a good living, I’m not a trust fund baby and I’m not a hedge fund operator," Dumont says. "So part of my hunt is always saying, ‘Okay, what’s out there that’s really great that’s also within my budget?’"

For Dumont, the purchase of his country house in 1999 was part of a natural progression. The collection simply needed room to grow. "This type of house also allowed me access," he says. "I wanted to create a house that was beautiful but at the same time allowed me a place to display my passion."

Then, in 2003, Dumont and Gould embarked on the sort of renovation project for which the timid need not apply. With architect John Franklin of nearby Quakertown, they added a 1,500-square-foot, loft-style great room with a 25-foot-high ceiling and massive wooden staircase whose weathered paneling was salvaged from a Philadelphia church. Although it anchors the house at one end, overlooking a small pond principally populated by a bellowing bullfrog, the great room is clearly the centerpiece of an impressive home.