Pickle Barrel House
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Pickle Barrel House
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| Location | Burt Township, Michigan |
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| Coordinates | 46°40′16.03″N 85°59′5.07″W / 46.6711194°N 85.9847417°WCoordinates: 46°40′16.03″N 85°59′5.07″W / 46.6711194°N 85.9847417°W |
| Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
| Built | 1926 |
| Architect | Cunliff, Harold S. |
| Architectural style | Other |
| NRHP Reference # | 03001548 |
| Added to NRHP | February 4, 2004 |
The Pickle Barrel House is a two-story cabin built to resemble two barrels. The house design is based on cartoon characters that were two inches tall and lived under a rose bush in a pickle barrel. It is currently located in Grand Marais, Michigan on Michigan's Upper Peninsula on the southern shore of Lake Superior. It is near the intersection of state highway M-77 and county road H-58 of this gateway town to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The main part is a 16-foot (4.88 m) tall barrel and has two stories. The main floor is for the living area and the upstairs is a bedroom. A smaller barrel serves as the kitchen and the two barrels are connected by a pantry. There is an outdoor garden and also a seating area with a garden path between these two.
William Donahey was an author, illustrator, and cartoonist. He created the Teenie Weenies cartoon feature which was a widely syndicated comic that debuted in the Chicago Tribune in 1914. The comic feature continued until his death in 1970. It featured tiny people who lived in a world of life-sized objects. To these tiny people the real world objects were gargantuan.
Donahey did several advertisements for Reid-Murdock & Company for the Monarch Foods line. Teenie Weenies were on many of the labels of Monarch food products including coffee, peanut butter, popcorn, sausage, bacon, and all kinds of vegetables, including pickles. One advertisement featured a small pickle keg that was used as a house by some of his Teenie Weenies children characters.
One day in 1926 as a surprise for Donahey's wife Mary Dickerson Donahey, herself an author, along with Reid-Murdock he had a duplicate large version of the keg house built that they could actually use. Reid-Murdock ordered the Pickle Barrel House to be built by the Pioneer Cooperage Company of Chicago. This special cottage would then be for the Donaheys to use as a summer cabin in the woods at Grand Sable Lake to inspire their writings. The barrel house was a large-scale version of the miniature oak casks that held the Monarch-brand pickles. The Donaheys received much attention for their "barrel house on the lake" since nobody ever saw anything like this before. However, after 10 years it became a burden because of all the curiosity seekers and onlookers wanting to see how they lived. Ultimately they moved it from its original lake location.
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