Starting in 1945, a Wisconsin builder carried materials up a rock cliff for decades; his handmade House on the Rock became a lasting roadside landmark

Alex Jordan Jr. began building the House on the Rock near Spring Green, Wisconsin, around 1945, and worked on a 60-foot rock formation that he had found in the countryside. A decent portion of the original structure was built by Jordan himself, who carried construction materials up the steep rock face as the project grew from a weekend retreat into a sprawling attraction.Jordan was born in Wisconsin in 1914 and had learned construction while working with his father. The House on the Rock was not designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, despite the property's proximity to Wright's Taliesin estate. The Taliesin Preservation places the two sites less than seven miles apart, and specifically notes that Jordan was neither an architect nor a member of Wright's Taliesin Fellowship.Jordan initially wanted a retreat on the rock, but the construction continued as he experimented with the building and its setting. The House on the Rock's own account says that he first rented the rock and surrounding land from a local farmer before his family eventually purchased a larger 240-acre property.The building became the attractionWord started to spread about Jordan's unusual construction project, and people began visiting. Jordan initially charged 50 cents to enter, and apparently expected the fee to discourage visitors. Instead, people paid to see the house, and the money was put back into construction and the growing collections. The project changed again when Jordan began using the income from visitors to expand the site and acquire objects for display, with the house becoming part residence, part architectural experiment and part collection of curiosities. Taliesin Preservation states that Jordan carried materials up the steep cliff and worked on the original house for decades, and the site was eventually filled with rooms and displays that extended far beyond his vision of the small retreat.The House on the Rock's own historical account says that Jordan became irritated by the attention his project attracted but ultimately embraced the public interest by charging admission. By 1960, the property was open to the public and had developed into a destination rather than a private retreat.The additions kept getting strangerThe property expanded into a much larger complex containing themed rooms, collections and architectural additions. One of the best-known later additions is the Infinity Room, which is a long, narrow structure that projects 218 feet outward from the building. Taliesin Preservation notes that it was added in 1985 and uses a large counterweight system to extend above the valley. The structure contains 3,264 windows and creates an optical effect in which its triangular floor appears to continue toward infinity.The complex eventually included attractions such as the World's Largest Carousel, extensive gardens and rooms filled with mechanical and musical objects. Jordan continued altering the property throughout his life, and later owners expanded it after his death. The House on the Rock also became closely linked with the surrounding tourist landscape of Spring Green, and its proximity to Taliesin has frequently caused visitors to assume the two properties are connected architecturally, but Taliesin Preservation states that Wright did not build the House on the Rock and that there is no evidence the two men ever met.Jordan died in 1989, but the project continued after him. It initially began with a man hauling building materials up a 60-foot rock formation in the 1940s that had become a large roadside attraction with multiple buildings, collections and architectural oddities spread across the Wisconsin property.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.