The House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin
Molly McNair, WithIt
When you turn into the House on the Rock’s driveway, you’re immediately greeted by a pair of eight-foot-high planters shaped like onion bulbs, decorated with sculptures of dragons. This is your first clue that you’re entering a strange, wonderful little parallel universe.
The House on the Rock, one of Wisconsin’s most popular attractions, was built by eccentric artist and businessman Alex Jordan in the 1950s. Jordan originally conceived it as a peaceful country retreat where he could entertain friends and pursue his artistic hobbies. His unique interior-design style combined midcentury modern, the Arts & Crafts movement, and classical Asian art. Jordan’s boldest addition to the original house was the “Infinity Room”: a long, glass-walled horizontal spire extending over the forest below.
If you’d like to stay firmly planted in reality, you could stop here, with perhaps a quick stroll around the Japanese-style garden with its abundant water lilies and towering dragon fountain. Alternately, you can head through the doors to the Mill House and leave the real world behind altogether.
As more and more tourists began to visit the House on the Rock throughout the 1960s and 70s, Alex Jordan decided the entire attraction needed more. More space, more surprises, more glitz and drama. So he kept collecting and creating, and kept adding on. Pass the antique glassware and suits of armor in the Mill House, and you’ll find yourself on the Streets of Yesterday, an eerily beautiful recreation of an upper-class Victorian neighborhood. A little farther down you’ll enter Heritage of the Sea, where a whale sculpture the size of the Statue of Liberty is locked in battle with a giant squid. Refuel with lunch, vintage cars, and hot-air balloons in the Spirit of Nostalgia before venturing into Music of Yesterday—a collection of beautifully-designed rooms filled with orchestras that play themselves.
And then you’ll find yourself at the Carousel. The World’s Largest Carousel, to be more specific, assembled by Jordan himself. The enormous art piece contains 20,000 lights, 182 chandeliers, and over 250 antique carousel horses—though I use the word “horses” loosely. Amid the unicorns, centaurs, and giant birds, there’s not one actual horse on the whole thing.
There’s more to see beyond the carousel, of course. There’s the Organ Room, where birch trees intertwine with enormous musical machinery; the Dollhouse Room, with its exquisite examples of miniature interior design; and the winding galleries full of historical weapons and Asian statuary. When you finally step back out into the gardens, you might feel as though you’ve just had an epic journey through space and time.
Just as Alex Jordan would have wanted.
Website: thehouseontherock.com
Visiting hours: Open daily, 9 am-5 pm
