Back in 2018 or '19, a woman from a book club I once belonged to suggested that I read American Gods by Neil Gaiman, which I read & enjoyed but don't remember too much about it. One of the only scenes I remember from the book was when Shadow and Mr. Wednesday go to the giant carousel in The House on the Rock. Since every place the characters went to is a real place in the United States, I decided that I needed to visit this giant carousel and curious house. 🏠 Fast forward a few years to when Audrey invited me to her wedding. The House on the Rock is in Spring Green, Wisconsin... only two and a half hours away from where we'd be attending the wedding. Of course we're going to take a trip to the house!!
I think I (or Mr. Gaiman's imaginatively fantastical writing) overly hyped up the house because it wasn't as great as I pictured it would be. 😞 The house is divided into three sections. Section 1 is the original house and completely worth seeing. I would visit it again and again if I could. Parts of Section 2 are interesting and Section 3 is a waste of time.
A bit of history (from what I remember from The Alex Jordan Center exhibit) - Alex Jordan was a super rich kid who went on a picnic to "the rock" with his family. He loved the area so much that he decided that he would buy it and build a house on it. He started with the Original House and gardens (Section 1). The house is fully functioning and he mostly used it to host parties. He designed the rooms to be small and intimate so his guests could enjoy good conversation. There are dangerous winding steps and low ceilings throughout the house so I'm not sure how his party guests survived their soirees. When we visited, the low ceilings had patches of carpet so it wouldn't be as painful when you inevitably bumped your head. LOL The house literally is on a rock and is built with rocks so the temperature inside matches the temperature outside. It was freezing! ❆ One of the museum employees told us that the rocks also retain heat so it is uncomfortably hot in the summertime. Glad we visited in the fall!
The Original House is decorated with antique furniture and collectibles. Mr. Jordan loved Japanese lanterns, a particular narrow necked vase and a wooden panel carved with an intricate floral motif, and these were seen throughout the house. He was also obsessed with musical instruments, especially self playing ones (like in a music box). 🎵🎺Since he had a bunch of money, he hired staff to turn his musical invention sketches & ideas into reality. There were about 20 or 30 (I don't remember what the tour guide said) self playing orchestras throughout the entire house. ♯🎻🎹Each cost a token to operate. I think we listened/watched them all and they were one of the highlights of the house. 🎼♭🎶
The other highlight of the house was the Infinity Room. It is built on the edge of the house and extends well over the mountains. 😲 The entire room is a huge window that overlooks the mountains and it looks like an optical illusion. The Original House and Infinity Room are both in Section 1 of the house.
Mr. Jordan hired a huge staff to build his house, assemble his self playing orchestras and to collect random junk for him. (Okay, maybe "junk" is a bit harsh but it was a bunch of weird and random stuff.) He was very creative and had a "go big or go home" attitude. He quickly amassed soooooo much stuff that he had to build Section 2 and then Section 3 to display it all. Section 2 has The Hall of Music, which is exactly as it sounds. Most of the musical instruments are there. Wes's favorite part was The Red Room. A huge self playing orchestra with all sorts of invented instruments played music from The Nutcracker. The floor, walls and ceiling were covered in red velvet and had dim lighting. A majority of Sections 2 and 3 were red and had dim lighting. It took my eyes a while to adjust and I did not like it (I have HORRIBLE night vision).
The Carousel Room is also in Section 2. The carousel is the world's largest. 🎠 Mr. Jordan collected animals from decommissioned carousels. Then he got bored of them and started fusing the different animals together. The gigantic carousel was pretty awesome. In the book, the characters get on a special animal and it takes them to a different realm. I knew that wasn't real (obviously) but I was hoping the carousel was open to the public but it wasn't for riding... just for show and for selfies.
Section 3 was a mess. Per the house's website, the house takes at least 3 hours to walk through (it took us about 4). The house is one way and there is no way to skip a section or return to a previous section. After marveling at Section 1 and mostly enjoying Section 2, both Wes & I were ready to go back to the hotel. But, no, we had to walk through Section 3. Section 3 was mostly dolls and miniatures. The first couple of miniatures were neat -- look a circus scene! 🎪oh look at this menagerie! these ones move! -- but it got very tedious very quickly. Toward the end of it, we were just walking through to get done with it and we barely looked at anything on display. Several of the dolls were creepy and it was dark, so that entire part was pretty eerie (which was probably the mood they were trying to accomplish). Section 3 reminded me of a cluttered antique store or a messy garage sale, neither of which I like. 😒
Once we finally got out of the house, we walked along the Japanese-inspired landscaped gardens before exiting. The gardens were very serene. Wes commented on how clean the ponds were. The water was crystal clear and there was lots of algae and plant life. I LOVED that the house was in the mountains. The trees were just starting to change colors and everything looked like a perfect autumn scene. I've never really seen mountains so I can't really judge, but I think Spring Green, WI has the most gorgeous ones. 🍂 It took a while for my eyes to acclimate to light again. I think they purposefully saved the exterior grounds for last so you could readjust to sunlight after spending 4+ hours in a black and red house.
I'm glad we went to The House on the Rock (not sure if Wes feels the same way, he was over it way before I was) but I'm not sure if I would recommend it or go back again. If there were just tickets for Section 1, I 100% recommend visiting but the full tour is too much to do in a day. I lost my sense of wonder after seeing the 5th carousel and 100th miniature set. 😬It would probably be better to see a section per day so you can remain surprised by all the different things . Going through the entire house in one long tour ended up being more of a chore than a fun day at the museum.
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