HOUSE ON THE ROCK NEAR SPRING GREEN WI

After moving to a Coast to Coast park at Ft. Atkinson WI, we took a day trip to Spring Green and the House On The Rock west of Madison on July 21. Interesting history of the place is too long to repeat here. It is  the web, particularly at wikipedia.org/wiki/House_on_the_Rock . My impression is that a talented but eccentric man built the original house, literally on and around a vertical rock, for his own pleasure. When he realized that the public would be interested in touring it, he added many collections and other unusual attractions in more prosaic buildings. Some of the objects displayed in the place are original antiques; others were made by him and his staff. It took us three hours to walk through all of the rooms over often uneven floors and up and down many ramps and steps. Some of the areas in the original house had low headroom. Management does not offer hard hats to its customers!   Pictures by the Canon A 1100 IS.

 

 

This is a small sitting room in the original house. A few of the stained glass items in the house are Tiffany; the rest was made Bauer and Coble.

 Jo and statuary

This stained glass piece is featured on one of the postcards sold in the gift shop.

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Another good example of a stained glass window.

 

Faberge display

One of the many musical instruments rigged to play mechanically in the displays.

 

This mammoth shark has a full-sized rowboat in its mouth and is being attacked by a giant squid!

This is the largest of the pipe organs in pipe organ display area, with percussion  played by the large mechanical figure.

This image also is on one of the gift shop postcards.

 

One of the features of the place is this giant carousel. It is not made to carry people and the statues do not move up and down. Very colorful, and the carved statutes, below, are different than any we have seen in carnival carousels.

 

 

 

This orchestra is composed of mechanical figures endlessly playing mechanical instruments.

Having paid my dues, I would not go there again. Some of the displays reminded me of what I sensed during hallucinations I had during an illness several years ago.

Sorry that this one is not in focus, but I wanted to show this unusual sunset