A visit to The Paper House will run $1.50 and takes you out to a beautiful corner of the Massachusetts coast, 52 Pigeon Hill Street Rockport, MA 01966, just up the hill from Pigeon Cove. Call (978) 546-2629 if you’ve got questions. More info at Odd New England.
Pictures tell quite a story, so take a look at the photoset showing details of the fireplace, curtains, and exterior walls. Here also: the porch, lamp, desk, and piano.
The official website answers the question: “how do you make a paper house?”
Well, let me see. (Elis Stenman) started out making a house for the summer. The framework to the house is wood-just like any other house-it has a regular wood-en floor and wooden roof. The wall material, which was supposed to be insulation really, is pressed paper about an inch thick. It’s just layers and layers of newspaper, glue, and varnish on the outside That keeps it pretty water-proof actually. This was done in 1924 and he lived here in the summertime up until 1930. Actually, I guess he was supposed to cover the outside with clapboards, but he just didn’t. You know, he was curious. He wanted to see what would happen to the paper, and, well, here it is, 70 some thing years later.
tags: massachusetts, newspaper, paper, paper house, rockport, rockport ma, weird passion, weird travel
