Buildings Posts

This iconic barn was built in 1919 for Grant Anderson, whose family had fished and farmed in the Little Sister area since the 1870s, and then started the famous Little Sister Resort.  The barn was used initially to house dairy cows, and in later years served as a site for square dances.  When the resort

This granary was originally on the Koessl farm.  It was moved across the road, and became part of a retail shop (the Domicile), and then a rental cottage; it was donated by Jim Salinsky. It will be used to house additional museum artifacts.

Built of hand-hewn logs, this cottage is believed to have been built in the 19th century in the Ephraim area.   Its name, and the artifacts inside, are a tribute to the Scandinavians who were such important settlers in this area.  The cottage was donated by Kathy Chomeau Andrews.

The tourism industry began to take hold in Sister Bay in the late 1800s when steamships delivered tourists escaping the summer heat of the big Midwest cities.  The first tourist hotel in the Sister Bay Area was the Liberty Park Summer Resort, built in 1898, and it remains open today as the Liberty Lodge.  In

Cherry orchards became a signature feature of the Door County landscape beginning in the early 1900s.  Migrant laborers helped pick the cherries until mechanical tree shakers were developed in the 1960s. The pickers came from all over — native Americans from nearby areas, individuals and families from the Deep South and Mexico — and in

Logging and the lumber industry were staples of the early economy in Sister Bay.  There was a major sawmill on the waterfront in Sister Bay, but some farmers also maintained their own mills to provide lumber for themselves and their neighbors.  This 100+ year old sawmill belonged to Hjalmar Holand, noted Door County historian and

A summer kitchen was the site of a farm wife’s baking, canning and preserving, butter churning and egg sorting.  It served to keep the heat of these chores out of the main house. This building, also over 100 years old, was originally located on the Knutson farm on Beach Road.  It was disassembled and rebuilt

This log cabin was typical of the spartan housing built by early pioneers in Door County.  Cabins like these sometimes served as shelter while the settler was clearing land to build a farm house.  Local master craftsman Don “Yukon” Erickson restored the cabin for his wife Judy’s weaving hobby, which resulted in the name that

Like the Loom House, this cabin was an example of early Door County housing.  It was built in 1884 by an early Swedish immigrant, Hans Olaf Hanson, in the Appleport area east of Sister Bay.  Don Erickson also restored this cabin.  Don was fond of the old Appalachian lifetstyle, so he named this cabin in

The Koessl family owned a farm for nearly 100 years near today’s intersection of Highways 42 and 57, where the Birchwood Lodge is now located.  This barn from their farm, built in 1887 by the property’s former owner, served early on as a livery stable for stagecoach horses, and was used by the Koessls for