A unique piece of architecture called the Pickle Barrel House is located in downtown Grand Marais in Michigan. The barrel-shaped house built in 1926 was inspired by The Teenie Weenies, a famous cartoon strip that first appeared in 1914 in The Chicago Tribune.
It was originally a summer home for Willliam Donahey, the creator of the Teenie Weenies, and his wife, Mary Dickerson Donahey. Mary, an author of children’s books and a columnist, had introduced William to many stories for kids. However, William got the idea for his famous whimsical cartoon characters when he was a child himself. The characters in William’s comic were two-inch-tall people who lived under a rose bush in a pickle barrel, quite similar to his summer house.
The Teenie Weenies was temporarily discontinued in the Chicago Tribune in 1924, but they made a comeback almost a decade later, in 1933. The small cartoon people began appearing in a series of advertisements for Reid Murdock & Co., a company from Chicago that sold pickles among their other products.
The Teenie Weenies often featured in the commercials and came to be the symbol for the company’s canned food line. Reid Murdock ordered the house to be built as a gift for the Donahey couple and a surprise for Mary. They copied the design from their own oak barrels in which they sold their product.
The comic ran until the author’s retirement in 1970 and was internationally acclaimed. The comic characters appeared in a series of books, as dolls, on tin boxes, and on clothing. Although perhaps not many people remember The Teenie Weenies today, the books were translated into several languages and sold over 1 million copies. Some are now sold as collector’s pieces.
The Pioneer Cooperage Company from Chicago designed and built the one-of-a-kind cottage in the same way as a real wooden barrel, but on a much larger scale. The whole building is composed of two barrels. The larger one, which is 16 feet high, is a two-story structure with the living area located on the ground floor and a bedroom on the second that is accessed through a spiral staircase. The living area is connected to the kitchen in the smaller, eight-foot-high barrel, through a pantry. Behind the small house is the historic Iris Garden, filled with plants native to Michigan.
Because of its unusual appearance, the Pickle Barrel House attracted a substantial number of curious visitors, which became a disturbance for Mary and William Donahey. Around 200 people would show up daily at the location wanting a peek of the unusual small home near the lake.
The lack of privacy was the main reason that the Donahey couple sold the house to a local businessman and moved away. The wooden house stood on its original location on the shore of Sable Lake for 10 years before it was moved to Grand Marais in 1936 by its new owner.
The Pickle Barrel House served as an ice cream shop, gift shop, and an information center through the years before finally falling into a state of disrepair by the beginning of the 21st century. In order to save the small home, the Grand Marais Historical Society acquired the property in 2003.
The structure underwent a major restoration project that repaired the damage and restored the home to its original condition. The whole project was financed by private donations and foundation grants and the total cost was more than $100,000. Two years later, the building was reopened as a museum, dedicated to the Donahey’s life here in the 1920s and 1930s.
The house is filled with the illustrator and his wife’s work and furnished in 1920s style. There are even photos of numerous curious visitors who visited the home when the Donahey couple were still living there. The Pickle Barrel House is listed on Michigan’s Register of Historic Places and can be visited free of charge.