Rock In The House (not to be confused with the House on the Rock) is a property located in Fountain City, Wisconsin. In 1995, a 55-ton boulder rolled down a bluff behind the property and crashed into the house of Maxine and Dwight Anderson…
The History Of Rock In The House
The property located at 440 North Shore Drive in Fountain City, Wisconsin, is a fairly unassuming house. From the street, it doesn’t look like anything special, a small three-story home that looks in need of some attention. However, the back of the home is a completely different story!
In 1995, Maxine had just been taking photos of her newly remodeled bedroom when moments later a 55-ton boulder rolled down the bluff behind the property and crashed straight through her bedroom. Eyewitnesses told local newspapers that they heard a “train-like roar” before it smashed into the house.
Thankfully, Maxine and Dwight escaped injury, however, shaken by their near brush with death, they put the property on the market and moved out of the house within a month.
The new owners of the home were John Burt and his wife Frances Burt, real estate investors, who instead of restoring the house, renamed the property “Rock in the House”, put a sign up outside, and turned it into a local tourist attraction.
The house remains mostly untouched since the Andersons left the property. The living room is still decorated in a 1990s style, the TV is still there, and so is the couch. Along one wall you can still find a display case that holds various items, including rocks painted to look like raccoons and puppies.
In the bedroom you can, of course, find a 16-foot-tall boulder, a huge hole in the wall where the boulder came through as well as a lot of splintered wood.
Visitors to the Rock in the House could pay the $2 entrance fee which was based on an honor system with a fee box near the front door. Handwritten notes could be found around the property (which unsurprisingly has never been lived in since the Andersons left), many of which displayed fun facts such as “only one window was broken in the rock/house collision”.
The Rock in the House and since been designated by the Fountain City Council as an “object of special character” and granted a historical preservation permit. It has also been written about in People Magazine, while John Burt has been interviewed on The Today Show as well as numerous radio shows.
However, despite its special status, it appears that the Rock in the House has been closed recently to the public (sometime around the COVID-19 pandemic).
Rumors state that money was stolen from the honor system box, and others have said the home was also vandalized. It also appears that part of the back of the house has either collapsed or been torn down as you can see in the before and after photos below.
Whether the Rock in the House reopens to the public in the future only time will tell, unfortunately, the rock no longer appears to be inside the house now that part of the house is no longer standing.
Rock In The House 1901
Back in the Spring of 1901, in the same location in which the Rock in the House now stands, another boulder weighing about five tons rolled down the bluff and crashed through the roof of a house that once stood there.
The homeowner, Mrs. Dubler, was killed on impact while her blind husband, who was lying in bed next to her when the incident happened, survived.