The Top 11 Most Unusual Houses in Wisconsin
Take a peek inside some of the most unique and unusual houses in Wisconsin. Do you know the story of the Milwaukee boat house with a hidden treasure? How about the Witch’s House in Fox Point with creepy concrete sculptures in the yard? Or the imposing castle fortress with a dungeon gaming room in Beaver Dam?
You have to see these bizarre homes to believe them.
NOTE: Most of these locations are private and not open to the public.
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1. Jungle House – New Berlin
This has got to be one of the most unusual homes for sale in Wisconsin right now. Set back off the road down a long gravel and hidden by trees, this bizarre hideaway in New Berlin has 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and 5,254 square feet of WTF.
Once a recording studio, this now private home feels like you’re stepping inside the dioramas of the Milwaukee Public Museum or a habitat enclosure at the zoo. The living room, for example, is a jungle. A literal jungle – with plants, a pond, waterfall, and bridge. And there’s a subterranean cave spa, a bathroom seemingly carved out of rock, a large Buddha statue in the dining room, and so much more.
Where to find it
2. Sunflower House – Madison
Designed by James Dresser, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, the dome and circular shape of the Sunflower House with pointed awnings has a decidedly sci-fi look. This unique midcentury modern was built in 1953 after Dresser’s stint at Wright’s Taliesin school of architecture in Spring Green.
The 28-ton concrete shell of the dome is supported by recycled steel beams from WWII Quonset huts. Inside, the domed ceiling rises to a height of 14 feet and is illuminated by a series of triangle windows, and a central skylight made of 6 individual panes of glass bathes the kitchen in natural light. Dresser even built a plexiglass window into the kitchen floor to funnel light into the basement.
Where to find it
3. Boat House – Milwaukee
On Cambridge Avenue, poised on a bluff overlooking the Milwaukee River, sits a 72-foot yacht that was never designed to float – though it’s said to be watertight and sea worthy. The boat house has been a curious Milwaukee landmark since it was completed in 1926 by Captain Edmund B. Gustorf, a showman and traveling salesman.
Gustorf loved boats, but his own attempt to build a boat sank the moment he launched it from the Milwaukee Yacht Club slip. As a later owner of the house, Samuel L. Burns, put it, “the captain couldn’t sail a dishpan across a tub of water.”
So Gustorf hired a naval architect to design a landlocked “yacht bungalow” which he originally intended to be a tourist attraction, as novelty architecture was quite popular at the time. A boat company from Green Bay built it. But when zoning issues squashed his plans, Gustorf just moved in. A year later he added the 30-foot lighthouse.
Dubbed the Landlubber by Gustorf, the boat house boasts 550 square feet of nautical living space. Inside you’ll find a bedroom tucked away in the bow, two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and basement rec room with a fireplace and 21 brass-rimmed porthole windows. A narrow catwalk wraps around the main cabin outside.
An old legend says Gustorf’s fortune was never found after his death in 1940 and remains hidden somewhere on the boat house property. A subsequent owner tore apart the garage looking for it, to no avail.
The boat house is currently a private home, but for a while you could experience it yourself as one of the more unusual Airbnb Wisconsin rentals.
Where to find it
4. Goat House – Door County
You’ve no doubt heard of that place in Door County with the goats on the roof, often referred to as the Goat House. Well, it’s not actually a house. That’s Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik in Sister Bay, and on warm, sunny days between May and October, a handful of goats can be found grazing on the grassy sod roof of the building.
The goat thing started decades ago when a man named Harold “Wink” Larson put a goat on his friend Al’s roof as a birthday prank in 1973. Wink always gave Al some kind of animal – a donkey, a racoon, a piglet. But that year, Oscar the goat changed everything.
The restaurant had just been renovated, and grass was planted on the roof in the style of rural Scandinavian homes that were built into hills. To Wink, it was the perfect opportunity to grab a ladder, carry a goat up with ribbons tied to its horns, and place it on the roof. After the initial laughs, Al decided Oscar was lonely and the roof needed more goats.
Today, Al Johnson’s goats are world famous and have become a popular tourist attraction. And it’s worth noting that you can see the goats even if you can’t make it to Door County thanks to the live goat cam.
Where to find it
5. Rock in the House – Fountain City
The Rock in the House (not to be confused with House on the Rock) gained notoriety in 1995 when a 55-ton boulder rolled down the hill into the home of Dwight and Maxine Anderson. John Burt, a local real estate investor, bought the house within a month and opened it to visitors. Anyone could tour the house, which remained a time capsule of 1995, for just two dollars. John’s wife Fran left a series of notes around the house telling you where to put your money, which door gave you the best view of the boulder that had taken up residence.
Incidentally, another house had once stood in the exact spot as this one. During the spring thaw of 1901, a boulder broke loose and rolled down into that house, as well, killing Mrs. Dubler while she slept. Her blind husband, sleeping beside her in the same bed, miraculously survived.
The Rock in the House closed to the public in 2021.
Where to find it
6. Gunderson Art House – Aniwa
Eric and Molly Jo Gunderson first crossed paths in art school. But it wasn’t until later, at an art show, while Molly pondered Eric’s quirky works, that she decided she needed to marry the artist responsible for them.
Eric lived in what used to be his grandfather’s auto repair shop, and began transforming it with his art in 1985. He and Molly married ten years later. Today, the house is filled wall to wall with their imaginative pieces, which have spilled out into the yard, and even the house itself is an art project. Watch this video for a glimpse inside.
Located on Hwy 52 between Wausau and Antigo, the house is immediately recognizable by the giant upright hammer in the yard. And the large Abraham Lincoln head on legs. Oh, and the smoking baby sculpture that actually smokes if you light a fire in the door in it’s butt. Not to mention George Washington soaking in a bathtub with his toes poking out of the water.
Where to find it
7. Mushroom House – Sturgeon Bay
The Mushroom House, also known as “The Dome,” was built in 1978 by artist Al Quinlan. An art director for an advertising company in St. Louis, Quinlan began the tradition of taking his wife Mickey and their 11 children 17 hours north in the station wagon to Wisconsin’s picturesque Door County to escape Missouri’s summer heat. But they soon decided they wanted to make Door County a more permanent home, and broke ground on a cottage along the Lake Michigan shoreline in 1960.
Quinlan built a scale model of the home which he provided to the builders, while he and his children built all the furniture by hand.
But the energy crises of the 1970s had Quinlan thinking about what he could do to secure a more independent living. In 1978, he began work on the Mushroom House with the help of architect Don Hansen and the Crash and Bash Construction company. They built it into the side of a sand dune so it would maintain a constant temperature of 55 degrees and require little heating or cooling.
The house consists of two large domes, or “dunescapes,” shaped from chicken wire and rebar and sprayed with four inches of Ferro cement. Inside, the open concept layout houses a large ship’s boiler which could be used in the event that it became too cold in the winter. An indoor botanical area provided natural greenery and aided in the earthen, organic feel of the home.
Quinlan, whose original house was just down the road, used the Mushroom House as a workspace until he decided to sell it in 1982 to a family who only used it as a part-time home. Since then, The Dome has become something of a Door County legend and has been subject to vandalism over the years.
Where to find it
8. Hobbit Hut – River Falls
This multi level home is almost entirely underground and is full of curved walls and arched ceilings that give it the feel of a cave or hobbit house. But with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3 fireplaces, a 2 car garage, and 2,236 square feet of space, this 1972 home designed by Mike McGuire is more than your average hobbit hole.
Where to find it
9. Mary Nohl Art House – Fox Point
Mary Nohl was known as the Witch of Fox Point, and local legend said the bizarre sculptures inhabiting her yard were created to keep watch for her family who had drowned in Lake Michigan just off the shoreline where the house sits. Sure, she conjured elaborate creatures and figures from the aether with her hands, but Mary Nohl was no witch despite the word “boo” written in pebbles from the beach on her front step. She was a lifelong artist who transformed her humble lakeside cottage into her masterpiece.
When she passed away in 2001, Mary left her home and works to the Kohler Foundation. They wanted to open it to the public, but zoning issues and neighbors prevented that from happening. The foundation then conceived of a plan to transport everything to a more accessible location, but it was deemed too fragile to survive the move. So for now her incredible art remains behind a fence, hidden from view.
Where to find it
10. Castle Fortress – Beaver Dam
This imposing castle in the rural Wisconsin countryside near Beaver Dam was built in 2007. It has 17-foot high ceilings, 4 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, arched doorways, a 4,000-square foot dungeon rec room, safe rooms, secret tunnels and passageways, a rooftop dry bar entertainment area – you know, all the amenities you’d expect from a medieval castle. Not to mention hurricane-proof windows and a nuclear bunker.
If you need to survive the apocalypse, you might as well do it in style.
Where to find it
11. House on a Cliff – Racine
This home garnered laughs on social media (including the popular Zillow Gone Wild, who wrote, “This doesn’t seem up to code”) when it hit the market with a creative real estate listing boasting “sweeping Lake Michigan frontage.” Dozens of feet of Lake Michigan bluff disappeared all along the shoreline during a January 2020 storm, causing this backyard to plummet into the lake while the owners were in Arizona.
It was a hard sell for buyers looking for a relaxing lakefront retreat, but after cutting the asking price and relisting it as vacant land that just happens to have a house on it, the house was sold in April, 2021.
A similar home just down the shoreline in Kenosha county was demolished after the porch fell off the edge of the bluff in 2018, followed by parts of the foundation and basement.
Where to find it
Is there a weird Wisconsin house that should be included here? Let us know in the comments below.
