Is Wisconsin House On The Rock Worth Visiting? 2025
Have you heard about the House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin and wondered if visiting it is worth visiting? Or even wondered what it is?
This Wisconsin road trip adventure, takes us to this unique and quirky attraction to see what all hype is about. Many visitors will tell you its worth the visit.
House on the Rock is considered one of Wisconsin’s most unbelievable hidden gems. This gem is the creation of a local, self-taught artist, born from his unique imagination.
House on the Rock is often refered to as a one-of-a-kind experience and many saying it is well worth the drive.
House on the Rock is located near many other attractions such as Taliesin, Cave of the Mounds and Mount Horeb making it a great addition to a weekend road trip.
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Is House On The Rock Worth Visiting?
What draws people to The House on the Rock? It claims to be an “experience that will entertain, astound, and amaze you with displays of whimsical, eclectic, and exotic exhibits.” Does it live up to that? Let’s find out.
If you are intrigued and are considering a getaway, we would like to give you a sneak peek at what we discovered at House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin, the cost, and answer some of the frequently asked questions, particularly what Frank Lloyd Wright had to do with House on the Rock.
Finally, we will share our thoughts on whether we think House on the Rock is worth the visit.
Wisconsin House on the Rock is just one of the many things on our list of Hidden Gems in Wisconsin.
House On The Rock Location – Tours – Hours – Prices
Getting There: Google Maps to House on the Rock
The drive to The House on the Rock is beautiful and scenic, with rolling hills and beautiful countryside. If you’re not the one driving, sit back and soak it all in. It is easy to see why Alex Jordan, who built House on the Rock, fell in love with the area. Yet, it raises the question of how he found this particular spot.
Helpful Hint – Be prepared; House on the Rock is in a rural area, and cell signal may be spotty. Download your directions completely before you set out.
The House on the Rock entrance, may at first not seem like what you are expecting, it is not over the top. Don’t let it fool you. The Lobby is warm and welcoming, yet once you open the door to the actual house, you realize Alex had an incredible imagination. What you find behind the doors will fascinate you.
Dates And Hours 2025
2025 Hours: Opens at 9 A.M. Last group allowed in at 3 P.M. Closes at 5 P.M.
Winter Dates – January 1 – March 13, 2025 – CLOSED
Spring Dates – March 13 – May 11, 2025 – Open Thursday – Monday
Summer Dates – May 12 – September 21, 2025 – Open Daily
Fall Dates – September 22 – November 9, 2025 – Open Thursday through Monday
Winter Dates (Christmas Displays) – November 13 through December 28, 2025
Open Thursday through Monday – Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
House On The Rock Admission Price And Available Tours
There are three different self-guided tours of House on the Rock. You can choose how much you want to visit depending on your time.
Section 1, The Original House Experience – Price Adults $19.95
Children (ages 7 – 17) $11.95 (6 and under) $1.95
The Original House Experience Includes: The Alex Jordan Center, which highlights the history of Jordan’s dream, the Asian Garden, the Original House, the Gate House, the Infinity Room, and the Japanese Garden.
The Highlight Experience includes section one and section two
Tickets for the Highlight Experience are only sold online – Adult tickets $29.95 Children (7 – 17) $16.95 Children (6 and under) $3.95
Section 2 Includes:
The Spirit of Aviation, Music of Yesterday, Streets of Yesterday, The Mill House, The Heritage of the Sea, and the World’s Largest Carousel – Check out this list of The World’s Most Famous Carousels. A Concession Area is located toward the end of this area.
The Ultimate Experience – Included sections 1, 2, and section 3 ~ Adult tickets $34.95 Junior Ultimate Experience (ages 7 – 17) $17.95 Children 6 and under $4.95
Section 3 includes: The Organ Room, The Doll Room, The Circus Room, The Galleries, and the Doll Carousel Room.
Start At The Alex Jordan Center
Starting your tour at the Alex Jordan Center will give you a glimpse of Alex Jordan and some of the why behind The House on the Rock, or it may leave you with more questions.
You will get a slight glimpse of a man who saved everything. Jordan was a collector all his life; he himself enjoyed visiting museums. He did not want The House on the Rock to be a museum; it was built to be his vacation home.
You will see an extensive exhibit of sketches, blueprints, old photos, and a really interesting look at Alex’s personal life.
Alex Jordan’s “Original House” At The House On The Rock
The Original House has thirteen rooms, each more unusual than the last. The rooms are large and filled with massive fireplaces, stone seating, and unique chandeliers, giving them an unusual comfortable feel. Yet all the stone, dark woodwork, color choices, and lack of real windows made the area feel dark and gloomy.
You will find that areas of the home have a quaint and vintage feel. The unusual gally kitchen felt like it was still in the 1970s. Compared to today’s kitchens, it is very small with a low ceiling, but it has a window for a little light. Only one person at a time can be in the kitchen, or two people if you like it cozy.
The house itself feels like Jordan built it around the trees. Every nook and cranny is filled with something Jordan has collected over the years.
It is said that Alex Jordan only spent four nights at the house. During our tour, we do not remember ever seeing a bedroom. Although Alex did not live full-time at The House on the Rock, he did host lavish parties there.
The Infinity Room
The Infinity Room seems to be an extension of the Original House, but you will be surprised to learn that it was one of Alex Jordan’s later additions. It was not constructed until 1985, more than 25 years after Jordan opened the home for tours.
The Infinity Room is one of the many highlights of the house tour. Seeing this 218-foot-long room taper from the house without any support underneath is amazing. The room’s design creates an uncanny illusion that the room extends into infinity.
The view is breathtaking, with over 3,000 individual window squares allowing you to see in almost every direction. This might be the ideal place to watch a storm roll in.
Walking out to the end is a little scary but something you don’t want to miss.
At the end of the room, there is a window on the floor for those who are brave enough to look down almost 156 feet into the forest below.
When the wind blows, you look out and see the tops of the trees swaying. Then you realize that the wind is also gentling, rocking the entire Infinity Room.
House On The Rock Streets Of Yesterday
Streets of Yesterday is a stunning re-creation of a 19th-century town. The red brick building and cobblestone that line the Streets of Yesterday let you know that you have stepped back in time: a simpler time when life slowed down and kids played in the streets.
As you wander The House on the Rock’s Streets of Yesterday, feel free to take some time and window shop the many storefronts.
Remember to take a peek in the windows and see all of the antiques that fill the storefronts and make the dentist’s office, sheriff’s office, fire station, or carriage house come to life.
Heritage Of The Sea
Heritage of the Sea is a display that when you walk into the area, your mind has to catch up with what you see.
You walk into a battle between two enormous, larger-as-life creatures. The detail is amazing! It’s three entire floors to see all of it. Taking a photo that will do it justice is not possible. This is one display you need to see.
Music Of Yesterday
Music of Yesterday is an amazing display of automated music machines that come to life both in music and animation. The music and movement of the displays transport you to another time.
Tokens are required to play the music and animation machines throughout the complex. Tokens are available (4/dollar) throughout the tour. Token dispensing machines are located in the Mill House, Heritage of the Sea, Music of Yesterday, and the Blue Danube music machine.
Employees of the sales team also carry tokens to sell. We also found a fortune teller game. You will have to try your hand at several because it is hard to walk past them and not want to play. Every music machine is unique, both with the music and the animation, making it hard to walk past a music machine and not try them all.
World’s Largest Carousel
Among Jordan’s collections is the world’s largest carousel. Stepping into the carousel room, your senses are almost overloaded. The sights of the lights and all of the carousel animals, along with the constant carousel and other music from angels displayed on the ceiling in the carousel room, cause you to stop in your tracks and momentarily let yourself focus and take it all in before proceeding into the room.
The House on the Rock Carousel boasts 269 carousel animals, 182 chandeliers, over 20,000 lights, and hundreds of mannequin angels hanging from the ceiling. This amazing display of lights, animals, and figurines takes up one entire House on the Rock building.
The World’s Largest Carousel debuted in 1981. It measures 80 feet in diameter, is 35 feet high, and weighs 36 tons!
Amazingly, not one of the animals on the carousel is a horse. It is said that horses were part of the original crew, but Jordan had them either replaced or reconstructed into another animal. This is just another example of how Jordan liked the unexpected and unusual.
To answer the question I know you want answered – No, you can not ride the carousel. I know, bummer, right?
The Unexpected
Expect the unexpected at The House on the Rock, and you will not be disappointed.
Many call The House on the Rock unique, quirky, or peculiar, all of which are an understatement. When visiting, you will find it hard not to be overwhelmed by it all; just go along for the ride.
Pictures will not fully describe the feeling one gets walking through this almost eerie masterpiece at times.
While visiting The House on the Rock, you’ll see so many collections: a 200-foot sea creature, maritime displays, Titanic memorabilia, a huge steam engine, and even a mechanical calliope. The list of Jordan’s collections is extensive. It is no wonder The House on the Rock project took on a life of its own and kept expanding all during Alex Jordan’s life.
To answer the question you are all wondering, Is House on the Rock worth visiting? We believe it was worth the visit. Even having been there before, I saw so many things I don’t remember. Each tour takes you on a different journey.
If you are in Wisconsin and looking for an adventure into the unexpected, visiting The House on the Rock may just be what you are looking for.
Did Frank Lloyd Wright Build The House On The Rock?
House on the Rock is a Wisconsin gem that many people outside of the Midwest may not have heard of. Many people who have heard of The House on the Rock assume because of its uniqueness, it was built and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but was it?
On the way to House on the Rock, we came across The Frank Lloyd Wright visitor center. We stopped in to continue doing our research. We had a very interesting conversation with the couple working at the Visitor Center. They shared a “story” of Alex Jordan building House on the Rock to spite Frank Lloyd Wright.
The “story” is that Alex Jordan admired Frank Lloyd Wright and his work so much that he drove to Taliesin to show Frank some designs. Frank looked at Jordan’s designs and told him he wouldn’t hire him to build a chicken coop.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center then shared how that timeline or “story” does not work. The main reason is that when the “story, event” was to have occurred, Jordan would have been nine years old.
Even if it wasn’t specifically built to spite Frank Lloyd Wright, Jordan almost certainly had him in mind. There are so many similarities between Wright’s and Jordan’s unusual designs. You’ll have to visit House on the Rock and then also one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s homes and decide what you believe to be the real story.
The History Of House On The Rock, Wisconsin
It is unknown how Alex stumbled upon Deer Shelter Rock in the early 1940s, but he fell in love with it and made it his favorite picnic spot. He loved the spot so much that he sometimes pitched a tent and camped on the rocks.
Jordan dreamed of a Jananese-style house on top of the rock. In 1945, after Jordan’s tent blew away, he decided it was time to make his dream come true. He talked to the farmer who owned the rocks, but even before he secured the formal property rights to the land, he started construction.
Alex’s dream started with him renting the rock and some of the land surrounding it. He started by building a small studio with a fireplace.
After building his studio, he purchased the property and the surrounding 240 acres to continue building his dream.
While Alex was working on constructing The House on the Rock, numerous onlookers were curious about what he was building. Some of the onlookers started knocking on his door or yelling up to him, interfering with his work.
Irritated by the people who were intrigued and continually asked to see the inside, Alex decided to give them a tour of the structure while it was in its construction phase for 25 cents. These meager pennies helped with the cost of construction.
In 1960, after placing a stone marker alongside the highway, Jordan officially opened the house to paying visitors. The first day House on the Rock was open to visitors, they made $15. Over the years, as the attraction grew, so did its revenue. With the placing of that stone marker, Alex Jordon’s dream home just became a tourist attraction.
In the years following the construction of the original house, Alex continued to expand his vision. Over the course of several decades, additions were made to the original structure, and other buildings were added.
Everything Jordan collected and built was on a massive scale. Creating an attraction with some of the world’s most unique and quirky collections.
Who Was Alex Jordan – The Man Behind House On The Rock
Alex Jordan was a man of action. He said we all have visions and dreams, but few act on them. Alex devoted his life to The House on the Rock. It was his dream and his evolving vision.
These books are written about Alex Jordan, and yet much of who he really was is still a mystery. He has been described as a recluse who did not like to be in the spotlight, a shadowy figure, and an architectural genius.
One can’t help but wonder if The House on the Rock gives us a true glimpse of Alex Jordan. The man that some thought built The House on the Rock to spite Frank Lloyd Wright, who lived just 10 minutes away.
American Gods By Neil Gaiman | House On The Rock
House on the Rock played a significant role in Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods. In the book, The House on the Rock is referred to as a portal into the mind of the Gods.
The book has long passages where The House on the Rock attracts, and many exhibits are described down to the oddest details. Gaiman wrote the book in a lakeside cabin near Menomonie, Wisc.; he said he actually had to “un-weird” the popular tourist site to make it believable.
Although the book is very descriptive, what was written could not come close to describing the insane feeling one gets walking through the sights, each one more over the top than the next.
How To Get To House On The Rock
The best way to get to House on the Rock is to drive. The drive to Spring Green, Wisconsin, from any direction is scenic, and you will find many other things to stop at along the way.
If you are coming from a longer distance, consider flying into one of the two major airports near Spring Green, Wisconsin. The Dane County Regional Airport (MSN) in Madison, Wisconsin, is the nearest airport. It is approximately 60 miles away from Spring Green.
Milwaukee International Airport (MKE) is Wisconsin’s largest airport and the second closest to Spring Green. Although a little further away, you may find more flight options.
We use Expedia for booking most of our flights. You’ll have multiple travel options, depending on where you’re coming from and how much time and money you’re willing to spend.
We had spent many weekends in Milwaukee. The city offers so much and is worth checking out. Its German influence makes it a very interesting city to stop, have a beer, and explore. Milwaukee is also home to The Harley Davidson Museum, the birthplace of the Harley Davidson Motor Company.
You can rent a car from either airport to your destination.
Renting a car is the fastest and best option from either airport. The drive is approximately 60 miles from Dane County Airport and less than 120 miles from Milwaukee.
Things to know before you go
- Be prepared to walk and wear comfortable shoes. We recommend not carrying much with you.
- Plan to spend at least 1 – 1 1/2 hours for each section.
- No outside food or beverages are allowed inside The House on the Rock. Refreshments may only be consumed in the food areas located towards the end of section 2. Restaurants close at 3:30 p.m.
- Only service animals that are assisting individuals with a disability, as defined by the ADA, are allowed.
- A small portion of The House on the Rock is not accessible by wheelchairs or strollers. Other areas may have uneven surfaces or ramps that may be difficult to maneuver.
Hotels near House on the Rock
After you visit House on the Rock, you may want to stay in the area. There are several hotels in the area to kick back and relax until you head out to your next stop. Our first choice would be to go toward the Wisconsin Dells and stay at one of the indoor water park hotels.
A road trip to House on the Rock opens up the possibility of visiting the Wisconsin Dells or Cave of the Mounds. Both are just a short distance from Spring Green, Wisconsin and offer numerous hotel options. We had such a great time in the Wisconsin Dells and put together a list of activities you must do in the Wisconsin Dells that are not water parks.
Best Western Dodgeville Inn & Suites
The Best Western Inn & Suites in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, offers a family-friendly atmosphere with an array of amenities designed for travelers.
Room at Best Western Dodgeville offers a flat-screen TV, a refrigerator, and air conditioning, providing exceptional comfort and convenience, and guests can go online with free wifi.
GrandStay Hotel & Suites Mount Horeb – Madison
The GrandStay Hotel and Suites, Mount Horeb, is conveniently located on US-151. It offers a variety of meticulously clean and beautifully appointed rooms. The sparkling indoor pool and spa will help you unwind after a long day of work or play.
Mount Horeb, self-proclaimed Troll Town USA, a charming little town 21 miles from House on the Rock. We stopped in Mount Horeb on our trip to Cave of the Mounds.
The Summary ~ Is House on the Rock Worth Visiting?
The House on the Rock is a unique and intriguing destination that is worth the visit if you are looking for an unusual and eclectic attraction. Its an over-the-top adventure for your imagination!
We visited House on the Rock during the holidays, and even though portions were closed, we really think this is one place that needs to be on your Wisconsin Bucket List.
