Phantasmagorical

Welcome back to the final part of my piece on The House On The Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. With all the weird and amazing things that we’ve seen so far, these next two rooms are even more astounding. At 80ft in diameter and 35ft in height, The Carousel is claimed to be the largest in the world. There are 269 creatures and more than 20,000 lights, while hovering overhead, hundreds of mannequins that look like winged rejects from Victoria’s Secret look down on the scene below.

It’s a case of look but don’t touch. The Carousel is not for riding on. It’s interesting to note that there are no horses on this bizarre roundabout. That was an omission deliberately planned by Alex Jordan. Some of the creatures may have originally been horses but he saw to it that they underwent a remarkable transformation in the workshops of The House.

The whirling movement of the Carousel is accompanied by the cacophonous sound of a pneumatic organ accompanied by huge automated drums playing fairground favorites. The sights and sound in this room are almost overwhelming. And here again, we see Jordan’s penchant for including unclothed, well-endowed female figures in his displays, leading us to suppose that he was a bit of a lad for the ladies.

Alex Jordan eventually sold The House to a friend in 1988 but not before he had completed what has to be the most spectacular creation of his fertile imagination, The Organ Room. As the old guide book states, ‘It might well have been designed for a staging of a Jules Verne epic.’ The consoles shown below are purported to be the largest in the world.

Ramps and catwalks allow us to view from all angles the massive hydraulic machinery, enormous pipes, drums, timepieces and brewery tanks that fill this room. You get the impression that Jordan bought up everything he could lay his hands on to make this bizarre and baffling array which suggests an amalgamation of Heath Robinson and Barnum and Bailey. What a show! And as always, it is accompanied by that blaring automated organ music, on this occasion playing The Skater’s Waltz. Phantasmagorical!

One final, parting shot. The House On The Rock may not be for everyone, but as a phenomenal piece of showmanship it is definitely worth a look.

Smoke And Mirrors

Welcome back to the glitzy, kitschy and somewhat disturbing world of The House On The Rock. It’s a place of smoke and mirrors that some might call magical. But the word ‘magical’ conjures up images of Disney World and this, my friends, is anything but. At every tortuous turn you are confronted with the astounding, the astonishing and the bizarre.

Everything is on a grand scale as you will soon find out when you enter the Magnificent Music of Yesterday. From the giant Gladiator calliope to the automated music machines in The Blue Room and The Red Room, all are designed to amaze you. My favorite, The Mikado music machine, which is large enough to fill an entire room by itself, was created from designs by Alex Jordan. The organ, accompanied by flutes temple bells, kettle drums and cymbals crashes out music like Dance Macabre and the Ritual Dance of Fire. Here again, not everything is as it seems. Many of the instruments that make up these music machines are not actually playing. The music is already recorded. But you are so mezmerised by what you are seeing that it doesn’t seem to matter.

Possibly still reeling from what you’ve already seen, you enter the Heritage of the Sea exhibit. Wow! It’s just about impossible to get the entire scene into one single shot. This monstrous diorama shows a 200ft whale-like creature battling a giant octopus while being chased by an old-time whaling expedition. As you climb the ramps and steps leading to the top of the creature’s head, you pass walls lined with display cases containing model ships and other seafaring artifacts many of which, I suspect, are the products of the House’s workshops.

From sea monsters we move on to something slightly less threatening. Dolls. There are probably hundreds of dolls at the House On The Rock and most of these are displayed on two carousels in The Doll Room, one of them a 6-tiered creation, the other with 3 tiers. At first glance you might think, how cute! But as your eye travels to the uppermost tier you are met with the sight of naked ladies (which seem to be a recurring theme throughout the House) and satyrs. Not exactly something for the kiddies.

Even the doll houses have a sinister look to them. Although they are lit from within, the room itself is in near-darkness. There are more than 250 doll houses in the collection, some set against a backdrop of large stained glass windows.

The Circus Building houses over one million pieces that comprise the collection of miniature circus dioramas. And just when you have become accustomed to looking at things in miniature, you enter a room with life-sized elephants and a colossal band wagon. You begin to think you’ve seen it all, and then there’s the The Circus Band with 80 life-sized mannequins playing various instruments. It took 14 people three years to create this automated 120 piece ensemble which includes 37 miles of wiring and 2300 pneumatic motors.

And that’s not all. I hope you will join me next time when we will explore two of the most fantastic rooms at the House On The Rock. Prepare to be amazed!

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.

Flying High

We recently spent a few days in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and our first stop was at the EAA Aviation Museum. We were there ahead of the big Air Show this weekend, so we had the place almost to ourselves and everything was looking in tip-top shape. This was rather an apt beginning to our trip as we’d just learned that our grandson had recently earned a well-deserved promotion to Technical Sergeant in the USAF. And my husband, who was also in the Air Force, received a warm welcome from greeters at the Museum with the most sincere thanks for his service.

I was glad of this opportunity to take pictures of something other than nature for a change, and this certainly was different and presented quite a challenge, the subjects being large and not always in the best place to get a clear shot of the entire thing, if you get my meaning.

There are more than 200 historic planes in this collection as well as many galleries and displays, so you can easily spend the whole day here. And there is also a section specifically for kids, with games and various amusements all related to aviation.

There is a small nature area in the grounds (you might know I couldn’t leave without photographing something to do with nature!) but by this time we were quite exhausted so we called it a day.

January Squares – Room Up Top

There is plenty of room Up top for Becky’s January Squares Photo Challenge this week. And the view is pretty spectacular from up on the top floor of these high-rise buildings in downtown Chicago.

Of course, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a high-rise in Chicago. You can catch a great view from up top these less conventional structures; the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the YMCA Leaning Tower in Niles, a lookout tower at Fort Snelling in Minnesota and the Moser Tower Millennium Carillon in Naperville.

Whether corporate or cute, there’s always room up at the top; Oakbrook Terrace Tower in Oakbrook Illinois, the Amegy Bank Tower in Houston, the James H. and Joann N. Collins Tower along the River Walk in St Charles and a lookout point in the rose garden of Olbrich Gardens in Madison Wisconsin.

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge – Symmetry

This week, Patti has chosen Symmetry as the topic for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. On the road and in the garden, we’ve come across symmetry in all kinds of places; Cantigny Park in Wheaton, a display of artwork in Galena and the Art Museum and a bridge in Milwaukee.

Although my own garden follows a more free and easy cottage-style format, I enjoy visiting the symmetrically formal layouts in gardens such the ones seen here; McGovern Centennial Park in Houston, Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville and Green Bay Botanical Garden.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Capital

This week, guest host Viveka has given us the topic Capital for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.  We have visited a few State Capitals on our travels around the US so here is my take on the subject.  Living in Illinois as we do, Springfield would be the obvious place to start.

Madison, is about the halfway point between our house and where our daughter and her family live in Wisconsin, so we sometimes meet there to visit places like Olbrich Botanic Gardens and the Capital Building.

We have family living in Indiana so a trip to Indianapolis is usually one of our destinations. Just my luck, one of the sharpest pictures I ever took was one of the steam plant, which is the only reason I include it here. Also pictured, The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, White River Gardens and a fountain at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

A recent visit to St. Paul, Minnesota resulted in some pictures of the Capital Building, the Cathedral of St. Paul, and the Conservatory at Como Park Zoo.

Our youngest daughter and her husband lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for a brief period so we spent a week there taking in the sights which included the Capital Building, Temple Square and the College of Pharmacy.

Our visit to Cheyenne, Wyoming was only a short one as we were on our way to Utah, but we stopped long enough to visit the Capital Building.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – A Window With A View

I’ve missed one or two of these Lens-Artists Challenges recently so I’m making up for lost time with this one.  Amy has chosen A Window With A View as the topic this week and here is my take on the subject. The first picture is a view of Millennium Park from The Chicago Art Institute. The second was taken at the Cuneo Mansion in Vernon Hills where there was a lovely view of the surrounding gardens from one of my favorite rooms there.

The next view, of the waterfront on Mackinac Island, was taken from a window high up on a hill at Fort Mackinac.

The next two pictures were taken at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oakbrook, Illinois. Two totally different views from the same room, one of the gardens and the other of the house. I believe this room was built as a sun or fresh air room which was supposed to be beneficial to the occupant’s health. If I remember rightly, there were windows like this on three sides of the room.

The next image was captured at the Capitol Building in St Paul, Minnesota. A window within a window overlooking the Capitol Grounds.

One of the biggest reasons for our travels has been to visit our children. For a while our youngest daughter and her family lived in a condo that had a very nice view of McGovern Centennial Gardens in Houston, Texas.  Before that, they lived in Salt Lake City, Utah where we visited the Natural History Museum that had a window where the view was almost the same looking in as it was looking out.

Climbing up the steps of one of the towers at Holy Hill Basilica provided a great view of an adjacent spire.  Also in Wisconsin, this time at the Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay, there was a colorful view from one of the windows of the John Purves tugboat.

Train Lines

I suppose it was inevitable. I do seem to have quite a few train lines in the photo files so here are some for Becky’s Square Lines Challenge. The first set are all in Chicago. The second set includes lines from Bartlett, Milwaukee, Glenwood Springs in Colorado and Galena, Illinois.

 

Art Lines

Here are a few lines at the Milwaukee Art Museum for Becky’s Square Lines Challenge.