HOUSE ON THE ROCK

A search for "House on the Rock" produced some pretty exotic pictures, like the one above. Even so, I'll bet none of them have interiors half as good as the ultimate House on the Rock, the one near Madison Wisconsin (below).

This was a private residence built by Wisconsin industrialist, Alex Jordan. Jordan fancied himself an amateur architect and one day he showed up at Frank Lloyd Wright's door with some drawings he made. He expected Wright to praise him to the skies, instead Wright said, "I wouldn't hire you to design a cheese crate. You're not capable."

Fuming, Jordan decided to get back at Wright by buying a peak overlooking Wright's property and building an outrageous house of his own design on it. That building is what would later be called, "The House on the Rock."

Jordan had so much fun building it that he couldn't stop. What began as an instrument of revenge morphed into an obsession. The house got bigger and bigger, and sprawled out over a wider and wider area. Who knows how big it would have gotten if Wright hadn't bought the adjacent property to stop it?

What was it like? Let's start with the Gate House (above). Parts of it look Victorian....

...and other parts look like Pueblo Indians lived there.

Some of it is a cheesy knock-off of Wright.

I guess Jordan believed that Wright's forms looked better when covered with shag carpet and velour. I can only imagine what Wright thought of this.

In a separate structure Jordan built houses within houses. This charming little street is actually inside a larger house.

Some say the indoor carousel Jordan designed is the world's biggest.

He even built carousels (above) for his doll collection.

Maybe the dolls were just an excuse to build doll houses, a whole town of them.

That T-Rex is actually supposed to be a whale. You can see a boat in it.

The place has cars, of course. Here's (above) a Rolls-Royce.

In a building as big as an airplane hanger he housed his collection of musical instruments. Some are real, some are fakes.

Yikes!

Thanks to the architecture fan who told me about this. Now I can't wait to see it.