Grandview

A Wisconsin dairy farmer covered his farmhouse in concrete studded with broken crockery and glass and filled his yard with figures of Uncle Sam, Paul Bunyan and a family of monkeys. Nick Engelbert was born in 1881 in Prevalje, in what is now Slovenia, and settled in Hollandale, where he farmed and raised four children. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center says he bought a hillside farm in 1922 and called it Grandview. Accounts of when the building began differ: the Arts Center says about 1930, the Wisconsin Historical Society says 1933, and the site's own history says 1937. The site's history says it began with an arched concrete porch that spread over the whole house, inlaid with shards of china, glass, beads, buttons and shells; the Arts Center calls the first feature an arched colonnade. The Arts Center says he wrapped wooden boxes in metal netting, covered them in concrete and shaped the figures before embedding the decoration. Travel Wisconsin describes scenes including Uncle Sam plowing with an uncooperative donkey and elephant, Paul Bunyan with Snow White, and the Engelbert family as a pack of monkeys. The site and the Arts Center count more than 40 sculptures; the Historical Society's release says more than 30. The Historical Society adds that garden plantings were designed by his wife, Katherine. In later life Engelbert turned to painting, producing over 200 oils before he died in 1962, according to the site. Kohler Foundation acquired and preserved Grandview in 1991 and 1997 and gave it to the Pecatonica Educational Charitable Foundation, which now runs it. It is on the State Register of Historic Places and belongs to Wandering Wisconsin, a group of nine artist-built environments. Phone ahead if you want to see the house, which the Historical Society's release says opens by appointment.