The House on The Rock: One of Wisconsin's Most Unique Attractions

One of Wisconsin's most famous tourist attractions is The House on The Rock.  Almost every Wisconsin resident is familiar with this attraction, and people either love it or hate it.  Regardless of how you feel about it, it's worth seeing at least once as it is a one-of-a-kind place.  

The House on the Rock is exactly what it says it is plus so much more.  The attraction is actually a house built on a rock in Spring Green Wisconsin.   You can't see it from the road as the trees have grown up so much, so I had to find an old photo on-line so you could see what the house looks like.  

The House on the Rock was built by Alex Jordan starting in 1945.   He loved the view from atop the rock so he decided to build his house there.  People started to wonder what he was doing on top of the rock so Alex started to charge 50c per person for a tour.  Through word-of-mouth his rock house started to gain excitement from all over and more and more people started to visit.  Alex put all the money he made from the tours back into the house and eventually into his HUGE collections of just about everything and anything you could imagine:  carousals, armor, musical machines, circus wagons, dolls and doll houses, I can't even begin to mention them all.  The man was a hoarder to say the least.  But he was also a brilliant man with a vivid and crazy imagination who imagined the impossible and spent his life achieving his dream.

Photo Credit

Alex Jordan was greatly influenced by Asian architecture and that design is seen throughout his home and collections as well as his Japanese gardens.

The gardens have beautiful wooded bridges, Asian statues and fountains, and ponds filled with koi.  I read in the "Alex Jordan Center" that at one time the garden was filled with peacocks!  Boy, I wish they were still there in the garden today.

There are several different waterfalls to view.

Lots of gorgeous pond lilies were in bloom.

And look at all that koi!  My goodness, I never saw so many koi in a pond before.  What are they feeding them?

This is Alex's Gate House. Pictured below is the kitchen.   The house was very dark and cave-like with low ceilings.  It was actually hard to take photos because it was so dark.  An interesting fact is Alex was a tall man, yet the ceilings were so low he must have had to spend most of his life bent at the waist when walking through his house. 

 The dining room table.

A beautiful peacock statue just outside the original house.  I would love this for my own garden!

A labyrinth of wooden bridges and boardwalks take visitors from one part of the house to another.

Here is Alex's original house.  This is a small sitting area.

Alex's Tiffany and stained glass collections is shown in this area.

Alex was said to be a huge reader and had quite the collection of books.

 

At the end of original House is the Infinity Room.  The photo below is not my own, as I could not see this room from the outside.  This room is an architectural wonder!  It extends 218 feet out from the rock and has over 3,000 pieces of glass.  It is supported by a triangular shaped steel truss.

Photo Credit

You are allowed to walk out into this room (but not all the way to the very end) , and it does feel shaky the farther you go.  There is a small section of glass floor so you can see below.

Standing on top of the trees!

And here is the view from the room.  Yup, I totally get why Alex would want to build a house up here!

Once you are done touring the actual House on the Rock the real adventure begins.  From here you enter the Mill House and you begin a long, dark maze of the exotic collections of Alex Jordan.

The Mill Wheel at the Mill House.

Alex's Collection are split into two sections.  Section 3 actually had a fire this year, and although it was finally re-opened to the public, they still didn't have the Musical machines up and running yet.  Pictured below is a full orchestra of mannequins and instruments which would normally actually play music.

Alex loved Circus paraphernalia and had quite the collection.  He had both miniatures, as pictured below, and also real life displays.

The dollhouse collection was incredible! I've never seen so many beautiful doll houses in one place before.

Pictured below is the organ room of which a GIGANTIC chandelier hangs above.  This was the weirdest room to us.  We didn't even know what we were looking at half the time.  I often wished the place had plaques that you could read telling you about what you were looking at.  There is the beautiful Alex Jordan Center which has all the movies and information you could possibly want to know about this attraction and its creator, but you forget half of what you read by the time you start walking in this crazy maze.

This is 'The Gateway to Hell".  Of course Hubby had to take a photo for the grandchildren.

In the "Spirit of Aviation" section there are old planes, this old airport cafe, and here was the one spot with reading material of the history of aviation

The musical machines are the most fascinating things to watch at The House on the Rock.  Real instruments play the music without a human playing them.  You will have to watch one of the many videos I took of the different musical machines.  They will be at the end of this post.

This chandelier wasn't the biggest, but it sure was one of my favorites.  This is "The Red Room".  Aptly named, for sure!

It's hard to get the scale of this stuff in the photos.  The picture below looks like it could be a miniature, but I assure you, it's life size!  That's a real piano in the center!  This is another musical machine.

This is the "Tribute to Nostalgia" area.  Full of things from yesterday and other items of interest like a tile car!

This life size whale is one The House on the Rock's most infamous attractions.  

The scary octopus sits below the whale, with its tentacles wrapped around the him.  In the display cases all along the walls are old ships.  He quite the amazing collection of ships!

"The Streets of Yesterday" were inspired by the Old World Milwaukee in the old Milwaukee museum.  

Unfortunately, the museum made the decision to get rid of that exhibit, and let's just say the Milwaukee residents were not happy about it!

And now here are some videos to watch.  I don't expect you to watch them all as I took so many, but at least watch one musical machine video so you can see how they worked, and also be sure to watch the carousel video.  The carousel was my favorite item in Alex's crazy collection.  It is the largest carousel in the world with 183 chandeliers and more than 20,000 lights.  I can only imagine the electric bill of this place.  

The House on the Rock Carousel

The drums and ceiling of beautiful angels in the Carousel Room

Music Machines:

There is so much to see at The House on the Rock this post doesn't do it justice.  I would have to include to thousands of photographs to tell it's entire story.  It really is a sensory-overload type of place.  You can get more information about this one-of-a-kind, exotic, out-of-this-world experience on their website HERE!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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