For everyone following "Goldens on the Road" we have not given up writing! We have been very busy meeting and visiting so many family members we can't even remember all their names! But we have had great fun playing with what our humans call grandchildren and nieces and nephews!!! Our humans even have a brand new grandson and he doesn't even play yet!! He was just born the end of August - Happy Birthday little guy!!
We have also played with many of our own 'dog' friends at several 'puppy camps' while our humans visited a couple of places that are very old fashioned because they don't let us Golden Retriever's visit there.....silly people....anyway, while we had fun playing here is where our humans went:
A very unusual place called "The House on the Rock" in Wisconsin.
The House on the Rock, originally opened in 1959, is a complex of architecturally unique rooms, streets, gardens and shops. It is located north of Dodgeville, a city in Iowa County, south of Spring Green, Wisconsin and is a regional tourist attraction.
As you can see it is built right on an amazingly large rock. What you can't see is that it is also built throughout the rock. But lets not get ahead of ourselves! First, below shows items you will see as you drive up the twisting driveway that leads up to the house.
He believed in really BIG pots for his plants as seen above!!
Needless to say the drive in was beautiful. As we entered the lobby and began to see what The House on the Rock was we were amazed! It consisted of a home built within, around and from the "rock". The man who fell 'in love' with this rock, who built his home on the rock, was either a collector or a very organized hoarder! But lets not get ahead of ourselves. First, let me show you the house he built: This first shot is actually a picture of a picture because there is no longer a ground position showing the huge rock available to stand and take a picture of the house from the outside, the forest and woods surrounding the house have completely taken over.
The house had several beautiful outdoor walkways :
Below is the living room. Beware of the low ceiling as it is only around 6' high! It is also solid rock covered in a felt type of fabric. The living room also had a huge fireplace and hearth, used for heating and cooking! Later a kitchen was built into the house with modern appliances for the time.
Next, the formal dining room: and yes I agree, someone needs to dust!!
Then walking through a hallway we came across a set of Carillon Bells - but we don't know if they ever pealed while in the house. (More on this type of thing later in this episode!)
There were fire places throughout the house.
Below is a 'parlor' or family room and notice the library in the back left corner, oh, and don't miss the 'grand piano' in the back right corner! We have no idea how the piano was moved in to the house!!
Throughout the house were beautiful Tiffany style lamps; now the thing about these lamps is - they were ALL truly original 'Tiffany Lamps' ! Stunningly beautiful - if a little dusty! This first one below is a favorite of mine!
This one below was one of my favorites too!
As we passed through the parts of the house that were on the tour it included several outdoor gardens. Every one of them were beautiful and for those of you who know me really well you know how much I love nature - especially flowers and gardens! So here is a sample of the beauty, and the uniqueness, of some of the gardens:
Next, some additional, more intimate photos of items in the various gardens - Enjoy !
Some gardens also included interesting statues:
Okay, so things have been pretty normal so far ... well, except that the house itself is built 'in' a rock. But as the tour continued things got really unusual ... as we continued we began to see rooms filled with items that were considered a 'collection' of unusual items. The sampling you will see below were viewed in extensions of the hallways or in separate rooms off the halls that ran throughout the 'rock house'. It seemed like if one item was collected there had to be more of that item somewhere in the world and it was found and added to the house.
Some things whimsical...
Some things delicate and intricately created...
Some things just plain weird...
Music was a big part of the life of collecting. So much so the instruments were automated so that they could play with the push of a button. Notice the odd looking contraptions that cover the strings on the instruments below.
Dragons were a big item too!
As were complicated carvings from the Orient.
If one paper weight was received, 3 dozen more had to be acquired.
This was one vase set on shelves in the women's public bathroom along with easily 99 others in various colors, shapes and sizes.
Medieval warrior armor !
And back to yet another music room.
Tiffany and ????
A beautiful privacy screen from China ... not located in a bedroom but instead placed on a very high shelf in one of the hallways.
And seagulls enjoying flight!
So, do you think things are odd yet? Wait..... now we enter into a very large warehouse style building and one of the first things we see is a complete village street .. houses, eateries, theater and more....not truly functioning but museum style.
Even peeking in the windows you won't see blank empty rooms...instead they are complete with wallpaper, furniture, pictures on the walls, and people! The attention to detail was astounding!
Not sure how many of you know that when my girls were little I purchased 2 doll house kits and built each of them a doll house. Now these kits come with billions of pieces and a book of directions for the construction of the house. It took me 3 months or so to build each house! Now as we enter yet another part of the warehouse collection we find ourselves walking down halls and admiring every dollhouse that was ever created in kit form complete with interior electrics, full decorations, furniture and accessories in every room with gardening and yards to boot!
Below are the same 2 houses I built for my girls that we found in the collection.
And here are some, just some, of the additional houses in the collection!
Needless to say I truly enjoyed examining all of these and could have spent more time admiring the workmanship and creativity, but: there was more to see!
Rooms dedicated to various musical arrangements which actually played music to match the costumes and décor...all automated of course! (A short note about some of these pictures...due to the lighting in these various scenes some of these are not my best quality, but I think you will get the idea of what we saw.)
Both above and below were floor to ceiling displays!
There was definitely a love for these particular light fixtures !
There were time pieces....
and model airplanes....
There were 2 carousels, one very large, the other a double-deck smaller version. Both covered in lights, and passengers of dolls and animals.
The ceiling of the carousel room was covered in these angel mannequins......
The walls were covered with carousel horses and other creatures waiting for their turn on the carousel....
So many lights !!!
Huge pipe organs were also collected although it was never made clear as to whether any of them were assembled so they could be played....
Don't forget the drums!!!
And the steins.....
This is the smaller carousel...
The perfect Christmas Sleigh.....
Now we go to the circus!!! Well, down the circus hallway, I can't say how long the hallway was but it had glass display cases on both sides with tons of circus set ups! Again, note the detail....
Then a long, long row of every bank of old that used to be so popular. Each one had a mechanism that would deposit coins into the bank in an entertaining way......
And an amusement park...I could only get a shot of the roller coaster!!
Circus wagons with entertainers on them...I'm guessing back in the day this is how the circus advertised.....
Okay...if you have circus wagons you need spare tires right? So, a wall or two of circus wagon wheels makes sense ......
Up and coming is a life size full symphonic orchestra!! And yes, they were playing Bach or Beethoven or Tchaikovsky!!
The Orient was a favorite for this collector as proven by the hundreds of scuptures....
Let's not forget federal buildings from various countries.....
The smaller carousel again...
An amazing cathedral.....
And a collection of hearses ... this being the most attractive one in the collection!
And a steam powered hearse too!!!
An amazing, life size, Jonah and the Whale!!
Finally we stepped outside again into the tranquility of nature. A beautiful walkway that gave us a view of the back of the 'rock'. It helped us clear our senses which after viewing all of those collections our senses had reached saturation! It was fascinating and overwhelming all at the same time.
Then, on the path back to the parking lot, is a view of a room of the house called the "infinity room". It is a bit hidden by the forest but if you look to the upper left corner of the photo below you will notice a straight edge of darkness which is the "infinity room". This is a hall built specifically to show depth of perception, beginning as a normal hall in size but as you walk down it the hall reduces in size until it gets too small for you to continue - although the hall continues - the appearance is that of a never ending hall way that disappears into the distance....amazing!
Well, I have tons more pictures of 'The House on the Rock' but this episode is already long. If you happen to be in south west Wisconsin, take a day (and you will need the better part of a day) and wear comfortable walking shoes, and see first hand all the 'collections' in this very unusual structure. More soon............
