Albert Zahn House/ Bird's Park
8223 State Highway 57, Town of Bailey's Harbor, Door County
Builder: Albert Zahn
Date of construction: 1924
After retiring at age sixty from a life of farming, Albert Zahn and his wife, Louise, began constructing and embellishing this unique property. Zahn hand-mixed the concrete and poured it into molds to form the eight-inch thick walls of the house. The resulting monolithic concrete walls still show the impressions of the formwork on the exterior walls. Also scattered on the property are concrete display stands and piers that displayed Zahn's artwork.
Zahn had a lifelong interest in woodcarving and was an experienced carpenter. A noted folk artist, Zahn displayed many of his bird carvings around the grounds and named the property Bird's Park, which he inscribed on a sign and placed over the entrance to the house. Other subjects included fish, deer, totem poles, and biblical characters. Albert would carve the figures and Louise would paint them in bright colors. Initially, Zahn gave away the carvings to friends or sold them to visitors for a small amount. As national interest in folk art grew, his carvings were collected and displayed in museums, including the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The house is private property. Please respect the privacy of the owners. |