Student 2
Student Example 2
Martin
Period 7
27 March 2014
Remarkable Imagination
“Look Mom, look! A whale! Whoa, I’m going to touch it!” The first thing that may come to one’s mind is that this tourist has one big imagination. In this case, however, the tourist will be able to see and touch a full sized humpback whale. It won’t be in the ocean though…this experience will take place in a massive building better known as The House on the Rock. Alex Jordan was the man that started the project of creating the most unique museum in the United States. It all began in Madison, Wisconsin.
Alex Jordan’s father, Alex Jordan Sr., was an architect determined to make a mark on the world with his constructions. He was extremely interested in collecting all of his life and enjoyed visiting museums (houseontherock.com). Alex designed a Villa Maria, which was a dormitory for women on the University of Wisconsin’s campus, which he became extremely proud of. He loved his design and the way he constructed the dormitory-so much in fact, that he put in a request to show Frank Lloyd Wright (Balousek 71). Jordon had admired Wright tremendously and even shared his architectural intentions with him (Calvert). He finally got an audience with the man himself, but Jordan was greatly disappointed with the feedback he received. “After looking at the prints, the story goes; Wright walked to the window, turned to the elder Jordan and told him: ‘I wouldn’t hire you to design a cheese crate or a chicken coop’” (Balousek 72). Jordan was angered greatly by this remark and vowed to create something greater than any of Wright’s works. This was where Jordan stopped south of Spring Green by a gigantic rock formation and formed the plan of the House on the Rock (Balousek 72).
He began his long journey of constructing this masterpiece by using materials such as rock, timber, and cement: which he carried up the 60-foot pinnacle himself (houseontherock.com). After many years of hard work, Alex Jordan Sr. had made an architectural marvel that attracted many passing tourists. The original house was only intended to be a weekend retreat for the Jordan’s, and it was never thought to be an attraction at first. “On the inside, the house is an extremely claustrophobic shamble through darkened dens and hallways lit by Tiffany lamps. There is an automated band that plays Bobro, the first of some thirty-five music machines on the route.” Also, almost everything in the House is covered in carpeting. You end up climbing to the very top of the House at a lookout point (“House on the Rock” Roadside America). This was just the beginning of a massive tourist attraction that would capture the eye of any passerby who finds them self in Wisconsin.
Later after the construction of the original House on the Rock, Alex Jordan married Mary Magdelina Pregler and had a son named Alex Jordan Jr. who spent his entire life living in Madison, Wisconsin (houseontherock.com). Born on March 3rd, 1914, Jordan Jr. was an extremely spoiled child who often tested his parents’ patience with naughty schemes (Balousek 72). “[Alex] attended St. Norbert’s High School in DePere, Wisconsin. After graduating high school, he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and declared Pre-Med his major.” After only a single year of college, Alex dropped out and began working for his father as a constructivist. He acquired the basic knowledge from Jordan Sr. and made ammunition during World War II (houseontherock.com). Jordan Sr. decided to give his soon-complete original House on the Rock to his son Junior in the 1940’s. (“House on the Rock” Roadside America).
Junior was determined to continue his father’s dream of making the most unique building possible. He constantly worked on the House by collecting items at flea markets and garage sales and transforming them into pieces that attracted much interest. The House had been beginning to gather even more attention by curious area residents. They began to stop by the house on Sunday afternoons for a tour of the original house. “In 1959, Junior put up a bag, charged a quarter per person admission and opened the place to the public” (Balousek 71). After years of collecting and adding on to his father’s creation, Jordan Jr. had stretched the attraction from gardens to shops and from rooms to streets, encompassing 200 acres (Calvert).
Today, the House on the Rock consists of three main self-guided tours that one can take to explore this marvel. The first self-guided tour is called the Original House and Infinity Room. The first tour starts with a walk-through of a massive garden that has more than 100,000 plants representing 275 varieties of plants, over half not found in the Midwest. There is a Japanese Meditation Garden and an Asian Garden complete with a cascading waterfall and a serene pond (thehouseontherock.com). The gardens also contain special displays of amaryllis, tree geraniums, giant dahlias, and Boston ferns (House on the Rock Features it's Gardens). After this calming experience, the tourist walks through a grand gate house which reflects Jordan’s style of creativity and has an intimate and reflective atmosphere with its low ceilings, quiet nooks, and casual seating (thehouseontherock.com). To get from the gate house to the original house, tourists must cross a 375-foot ramp suspended over many buildings. On the inside of the actual house, there are great amounts of oriental art, stained glass lamps, bronze statuary and a three-story bookcase filled with rare books (houseontherock.com). The original house was mainly constructed by Alex Jordan Sr., and many of his collections are still there today. Once the tourist reaches the end of the original house, they are taken back from what they see next. A massive glass structure protrudes out of the house itself over, what seems to be, hundreds of miles. This is the Infinity Room which extends out an unsupported 218 feet. It is elevated 156 feet above the forest floor which “makes you feel like you’re walking in the clouds” (houseontherock.com). This piece of the first tour was added in 1985 and has 3,264 glass windows with a glass floor (houseontherock.com).
The second self-guided tour is where the tourist meets the “museum” part of the House on the Rock. This section consists of many buildings that all connect to each other and have different themes. The first building that is encountered is the Mill House. This is a collection of extraordinarily sculpted glassware pieces, suits of armor, a giant bellow, and an immense fire pit with huge cauldrons on the hearth of a huge fireplace. The Streets of Yesterday is the second part of this tour with a life-sized creation of a 19th century village. There is a wood-carver’s shop, china shop, sheriff’s office, fire-station, apothecary, carriage house, and a barbers shop (thehouseontherock.com). After this town-like building comes an oceanic themed building called the Heritage of the Sea. Here, the tourist finds the extraordinary sight of a gigantic 200-foot long humpback whale sculpture fighting a life-sized giant squid sculpture complete with flying birds attached to the ceiling. This gigantic whale is longer than the Statue of Liberty, and the objects surrounding it are an entire maritime collection of Titanic artifacts (thehouseontherock.com). There are ship replicas and a massive ramp lined with oceanic war memorabilia and sea faring letters that one must climb to reach the top of the whale (“House on the Rock” Roadside America). The next section of this tour is the Nostalgia Building. This is where many old modes of transportation are available to the tourists to see and interact with such as the ability to walk directly aboard a 1963 Lincoln Continental armor-plated battle ship. This room also has a Robe Goldberg machine which spans a whole wall (thehouseontherock.com). The next section is the Music Room. This houses the “world’s greatest collection of animated, automated music machines, towering pipe organs and dazzling orchestrations that were popular in the 19th Century Europe. Separate rooms showcase a unique collection of mechanically operated symphony orchestras, the 29-foot tall Franz Josef and the famous Mikado with animated oriental figures”. The Spirit of Aviation is next on this tour with a huge collection of remote-controlled model planes with wingspans up to 8 feet. There are planes such as the P47N Thunderbolt, Hawker Hurricane, A25 Invader, and navy planes through the 1960’s. To finish the second tour, the spectator comes across the world’s largest carousel that does not have a single horse on it. The Carousel took 10 years to build-directly at the House on the Rock- and consists of 20,000 lights, 182 chandeliers, and 269 handcrafted animal statues. It weighs 36 tons, is 80 feet wide and 35 feet tall (thehouseontherock.com).
The third and final self-guided tour is the second half of museum buildings. After taking a quick break from the second tour, the next room that is encountered is the Organ Room. “This huge, dream-like room is filled with displays and constructions designed to fill the senses, including huge vats, cannons, a giant ship’s propeller, spiral staircases, bridges, banks of organ pipes and a 45-foot high perpetual motion clock” (thehouseontherock.com). The next room is the Doll House. This is a beautiful room where 200 stunning Doll Houses have been put together. They are fully furnished and are just mini replicas of houses down to the tiniest of details, including interior lighting and outside lighting. After this room is the Circus Building which consists of more than a million miniature pieces of a circus. The miniature figures are spread all the way around a hallway surrounding it, then it opens up to a room as big as a circus tent. Inside of this room is a 40-piece animated band accompanied by an 80-piece orchestra. These animatronics are powered by 37 miles of wiring and 2,300 motors. The Circus Room is preceding the Armor, Weapons, and Jewel Rooms which each have their own “claims to fame”. This includes collections of King Arthur and Samurai Hannibal for the Armor Room, a huge collection of unusual firearms such as Kentucky flintlocks rifles, wheel locks, matchlocks, pepperbox pistols, and dagger guns for the Weapons Rooms, and finally, beautiful replicas of the Tower of London’s Crown Jewels and royal crown collections for the Jewel Room (thehouseontherock.com). The very last room on the tour is the massive Cannon Room that houses the world’s largest cannon. “The weapon was so absurdly large that the room itself had to be constructed around it” (“House on the Rock” Roadside America). To end the journey through the House on the Rock, the last room sends the overwhelmed tourist back to the clam, and welcoming gardens, where their crazy-but amazing-journey must finally end.
Alex Jordan Sr. and Alex Jordan Jr. were both very influential men who thought about architecture like no other. From the construction of the very first house on that sculpture of rock to the enormous multiple building complex that Jr. created, the Jordan’s put their heart and soul into making their House on the Rock the most interesting and awe inspiring venue that one could go to. They started from nothing, and now they have everything they could have ever have hoped for; the House on the Rock truly is the experience of a lifetime.
Works Cited
Balousek, Marv. Famous Wisconsin Inventors and Entrepreneurs. Vol. 1. N.p.: Badger Books Inc., 2003. Print.
Calvert, Cynthia. "Life and Entertainment." Texas Tribune: n. pag. ProQuest 5000. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. <http://www.ourtribune.com/article.php?id=16354>.
"House on the Rock Features it's Gardens." Milwaukee Journal [Milwaukee, Wis.]: n. pag. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
"House on The Rock." Roadside America. N.p., Aug. 2012. Web. 1 Feb. 2014. <http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2254>.
"The House on the Rock." The House On The Rock: Attraction, Inn, Resort: n. pag. Print.
Bibliography
"Carousel." The House on the Rock. HOTR, 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://www.thehouseontherock.com/HOTR_Attraction_PhotoGalleryShow.htm>. Taken by the House on the Rock website publishers.
Discovere. Discovere, 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://www.discovere.org/content/house-rock-attraction>.
"The House of the Rock." Wisconsin Dells. Wisconsin Dells Visitor & Convention Bureau, 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. <http://www.wisdells.com/wisconsin-dells-attractions/the-house-on-the-rock/>.
M., Geoff. "House on the Rock." University of Madison-Wisconsin. UW-Madison, 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <https://kb.wisc.edu/cavr/page.php?id=9567>.
Short, Dan. "House on the Rock." Atlas Obscura. N.p.: n.p., 2014. N. pag. ProQuest 5000. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. <http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/house-rock>.
"House on The Rock." Roadside America. N.p., Aug. 2012. Web. 1 Feb. 2014. <http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2254>.
Serrell, Beverly. "The House on the Rock." National Association for Museum Exhibition. NAME, 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://name-aam.org/>.
Balousek, Marv. Famous Wisconsin Inventors and Entrepreneurs. Vol. 1. N.p.: Badger Books Inc., 2003. Print.
Calvert, Cynthia. "Life and Entertainment." Texas Tribune: n. pag. ProQuest 5000. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. <http://www.ourtribune.com/article.php?id=16354>.
"The House on the Rock." The House On The Rock: Attraction, Inn, Resort: n. pag. Print.
"House on the Rock Features it's Gardens." Milwaukee Journal [Milwaukee, Wis.]: n. pag. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/333610270/CF689F00D3CB4F1BPQ/3?accountid=3729>.
"House on the Rock History." House on the Rock. House on the Rock, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. <http://www.thehouseontherock.com/HOTR_Contact_History.htm>.