The House On The Rock

Welcome to The House on the Rock, a masterpiece of showmanship, built in 1945, high atop Deer Shelter Rock and overlooking the surrounding forest. Along with The House, the bulk of the complex, a conglomeration of barns and buildings, is situated in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Although I’ve used the occasional shot for Photo Challenge purposes, I don’t think I’ve ever actually devoted a whole post to this place.  There is so much to see that I could never adequately cover everything in one go, so this is another one of those multi-part efforts.

On the face of it, the entrance fee may seem exorbitant but it’s worth every penny. This probably accounts for the number of visitors that The House sees every year, and how Alex Jordan, the creator of The House, made his fortune.  Many of these people, myself included, have been here before. It’s fascinating, sometimes overwhelming, and yes, even a little bit creepy.

Right from the long drive up to the Visitors Center you know you’re going to see something amazing. But be prepared! There’s a lot of walking involved, mostly indoors, and it can, at times, seem almost too much to take in.  Our arrival, on our most recent visit, coincided with that of a bus-load of seniors. Later in the day, we came upon them, somewhat scattered, weary and foot-sore. The leader of the group was trying to round up stragglers. I heard one elderly lady call out,  “How in the hell do we get out of here?” while the voice of the harassed leader echoed through the cavernous, dimly-lit exhibit room, “I’ve found Carol!”

From a photographic standpoint, The House on the Rock is both a nightmare and a challenge for someone like me who relies solely on automatic camera settings.  Low light is necessary to maintain the atmosphere of mystery and curiosity at The House, but it’s not good for picture taking.  In the five or so visits that I’ve made here, I’ve come away with barely enough usable photos to scratch the surface.

Unless you read a bit about Alex Jordan you might be inclined to think that he was just a very rich man who collected a lot of stuff, but this is not necessarily the case. Although there may be a kernel of authenticity to these many different collections, much of what you see was made here in the workshops of The House, which is why things are not labeled with attributes. This isn’t a museum. It’s a showcase, if you like, for Jordan’s imagination and eccentricities.

From what I can make out, Jordan never actually lived in The House itself, although it was used for entertaining friends.  I’ve never been able to get a picture of the outside of the building but inside the place is full of interesting nooks and crannies containing all manner of things. The glassware might look like Tiffany creations but these are only the first of many things in The House that are not what they seem. They were really made by the Illinois firm of Bauer and Coble.   There is a distinctly Oriental flavor to much of The House, which comes over as the East meets Frank Lloyd Wright.

From the top of the house, you can look out over the surrounding countryside and catch a glimpse of the roof of one of the strangest rooms ever built.  The Infinity Room, with 3,264 windows, projects 218 ft out from the rock, above the Wyoming Valley.  At the furthest point at which you are allowed to walk, is a plexiglass window in the floor that allows you to look down to the forest floor 156 ft below.

You get an idea of just how huge this place is when you step into Streets of Yesterday, a fascinating reproduction of shops, offices and homes that house all kinds of artifacts and bric-a-brac. Part of the challenge is to guess which are genuine and which were made by the talented artists who worked at The House. Fortunately, the windows are well lit, but the street itself, like so much here, remains in perpetual darkness.

I hope you’ll join me here for the next post, as I delve deeper into the world of The House On The Rock.