So since the main purpose of this vacation was really to drive my brother’s car to North Carolina, we spent the majority of last Thursday doing exactly that. Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I am obsessed with road trips. They’re on my list of most awesome things about being alive. But I’m one of those annoying people that wants to stop at every historical marker or oddball museum to take a picture. Call it a by-product of being homeschooled for 11 years.
Everything is a field trip. Fortunately, I got this quality from my mom so she wasn’t too terribly annoyed that I wanted to field trip our way through a few states. Before we left Columbus, I’d visited my favorite travel website,
Roadside America, aka: “Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions.”
Roadside is great because I can always count on them to recommend some sightseeing just a little (or a lot) on the side of weird. And that’s where
Körner's Folly comes in. This is a destination I’d had my eye on since
last March when we drove to North Carolina.
Sometimes billed as the “strangest house in the world,”
Körner's Folly was built essentially as a model home by interior designer Jule Körner. As a result, none of the rooms or doors are the same size or style. Because Jule’s wife was so in love with the house, they eventually remodeled and extended the home. It’s now a walk-through museum. Some of the rooms are tiny and the doorways can be difficult to get through but it was well-worth getting side-tracked from the main highway.
Walking up the path to the house…
It felt like there were mirrors in every single room in the house. It got a little horror-movie creepy after awhile.
More mirrors and doors and stairways…the middle photo is of
Körner's design and it’s called a “kissing corner.” It was for engaged and married couples who wanted to sneak away during a party or reception and spend some time alone. I thought this was especially sweet.
In the children’s nursery, the ceiling is only 5’ 6” high as Mom is demonstrating.
The other significant thing about the house is that it holds the first domestic theatre (stage in a private home) built in the United States. The little theatre was used for the
Körner's children and other local kids to put on theatrical productions for the community.
Fortunately, no one else was in the museum so I could get away with stuff like this.
And they say a PhD in theatre is an impractical degree…
So there you have it. Körner's Folly. If you’re ever in Kernersville, North Carolina, be sure to stop and see it. This fulfills something on my
bucket list for 2012.
What about you? What’s the weirdest museum you’ve ever visited?
love, elizabeth
