A Peak at House on the Rock
Anyone living in Southwest Wisconsin or Southeast Minnesota is likely to have heard of The House on the Rock. The place was even featured in Neil Gaimon’s American Gods. Not exactly museum, not quite an art gallery, this one-pf-a-kind house is an architectural wonder, full of …things. All kinds of things. Ships models and doll houses, Automated musical instruments, clocks and gears. Crown jewels and weapons of all types. The largest carousel in the world.
And dragons.
The house is built on a chimney of rock in rural Wisconsin. It features incredible views from cozy rooms using the natural rock to guide the size and shape of the structure. Alex Jordan, creative architect and collector extraordinaire began building it in 1945. It was opened to the public in 1960 and has attracted millions of visitors since then. Until his death in 1989, Alex kept adding onto the complex. The items within are a unique, and often unlabeled, collection of antiques and reproductions, a curious mix illustrating the wide-ranging interests of the creator.
To me , the most surprising feature is the vast number of dragons within the complex. Not a separate ‘dragon’ section, but the ubiquitous inclusion of dragons and dragon themed objects.
Though I suppose I really shouldn’t be surprised. After all, if a dragon were to find itself in Southwest Wisconsin, what better place to perch and build a nest than the quirky house on a rock, overlooking the vast fields and woods of the surrounding valleys?
BRIC-A-BRAC 