The House On The Rock - 2004
Updated: 11/09/08
This is an interesting destination. The house is very different and the collections of items in the various other buildings is outstanding. Admission was $19.50 per person. Wear comfortable footwear, there is a lot of walking. There are stairs in the house and the floors are uneven throughout. The tour of the house takes about an hour. Walking through the other buildings of the collection took us another three hours - this allows a half hour for lunch in the cafe part way through the walk.
When
the house was built by Alex Jordan in 1945, it had great views and was able to
be seen without an obstructed view. It opened for tours in 1960. Buildings have
been added to display the collection through 1995.
Over time nature has grown around the rock and house making it difficult for us
to see it today. The house is a rambling, 14-room house built on top of a 60
foot rock pillar.
From the house
...
Toward the house ...
The Infinity Room was added in 1985. It is 218 feet long, with 3,624 windows and suspends you 156 feet above the forested valley.
The view of the newer Infinity Room has also changed over time. The second photograph was made from a scenic turnout .
The ceiling in the house is exceptionally low. We are told Alex Jordan was a tall man - hard to believe. The benches you see in the lounge areas are where people slept. There were no bedrooms. The house had two small bathrooms. The house was used as a gathering place, a weekend retreat, he did not actually live there.
Each 'room' of the house had a fireplace. Most 'rooms' were lounge areas. In the Gate House, which serves as an entrance, is a small kitchen.
Art work was displayed throughout the house.
Stained glass was a very popular decorating item.
These
paperweights were displayed in a huge bellows. Every lounge area was decorated
with unique items.
The
roof of the house is included in the tour because Alex used the roof for
entertaining as well.
An inclined walkway is used to enter and leave the house. The house is isolated from the other buildings. The other buildings are connected so you do not go outside to move from building to building.
While the collection covers a wide range of items, by far the collection of mechanical musical instrument is the most unique to us.
This
machine had an attendant who started it on request.
Most of the other instruments were started by inserting tokens into a coin box. We did not use any tokens so we do not have details on how the process worked. We took advantage of the people who had and used tokens to start the instruments.
Ask at the ticket counter for details.
This room showed a small orchestra in operation.
One
massive display of mechanical musical instruments had an oriental theme.
Another
room's gold overlay color and chandeliers was bright and the music great. It too
fill the entire wall of the room.
The individual instruments and the walls of instruments were outstanding. But, the greatest display of mechanical musical instruments was a room containing a full orchestra.
This photograph shows some
of the switches and hoses required
to operate the instruments.
One collectable item we do not remember seeing at other locations was mechanical advertising displays for diamonds.
The other displays of the collection are too numerous to give individual attention to each one. We will show a sampling of the collection. It covered miniature furniture in doll houses to huge electric generators and pipe organs.
