Building Description Pickle Barrel House, Grand Marais Michigan

The Pickle Barrel House is a one-time summer cottage constructed to look like pickle barrels. The building is comprised of a larger, two-story and smaller, one-story, barrel-shaped structure connected by a short passage. It stands at the northeast corner of the central four-corner intersection in the unincorporated village of Grand Marais, a small summer resort town near the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along the Upper Peninsula's Lake Superior shore. The house stands close to the intersection and is sited on a southwest-to-northeast axis, with its front door facing the intersection. It stands on an open lawn. Older wood-frame commercial buildings and houses stand in the immediate vicinity and Grand Marais' harbor is less than a quarter mile to the east.

The Pickle Barrel House consists of two wooden stave barrel-shaped structures connected by a short passage or connector. With a liquid capacity of approximately 21,000 gallons, the two-floored main barrel stands sixteen feet in height. The structure is twelve feet in diameter at the top and bottom and sixteen feet in diameter at the bilge or center height. The main barrel is constructed of two-inch thick white spruce staves and the construction is proportioned to a standard pickle barrel of the time. The structure is held together by six steel hoops. The main building is capped with a circular roof, coming to a peak in the center and extending eighteen inches over the ends of the staves. The ceiling is made up of roof joists and forms an umbrella effect over the interior of the room.

The first floor of the main building, originally used as the living room, is eight feet high and twelve feet in diameter at the floor and sixteen feet in diameter at the ceiling. In addition to the main door, there is a back door opposite it leading to the passage or connector to the rear building. A single window on each side, measuring sixteen by twenty inches, is located midway between the front and back doors.

A spiral staircase leads from the first to the second floor. Conversely to the first floor, the second floor, originally the sleeping quarters, is sixteen feet in diameter at floor level and twelve feet in diameter at the ceiling. The second floor contains four two-over-two sixteen-by-twenty-inch windows.

In the rear of the main barrel is a passage or connector that, originally serving as a pantry, leads to the second barrel. The connector is six feet long and six feet wide. The second barrel, originally used as the kitchen, is eight feet in diameter at the bottom and top and nine feet in diameter at the bilge. It has a cone-shaped roof similar to the roof of the main barrel. This single-story room has three two-over-two sixteen-by-twenty-inch windows.

When the structure was constructed in 1926, it was located near the northern end of Grand Sable Lake, which is located about four miles southeast from the village of Grand Marais. Surrounded by the lake, woodlands, and sand dunes, the cottage was deemed an ideal retreat for the Donaheys, who by all accounts enjoyed the area's scenery and wildlife. The structure's exterior was originally coated in oil, rather than painted. The interior was originally furnished by the wife of the cottage's cooper/builder, Harold Cunliff. Included in her decorating design were tan rugs, lanterns made from Monarch Teenie Weenie pickle barrels, Hudson Bay blankets, and tan curtains accented by blue and brown leaves. Figures resembling characters from the Teenie Weenie comic strips cut out of wood were painted and attached to the structure as if to create the appearance that they inhabited the house and its surroundings. Many tourists dubbed the area "Teenie Weenie Land."

After enduring ten summers of residing in the Pickle Barrel House, the Donaheys' increasing frustration with the hoards of unannounced visitors and sightseers caused them to give up the house as a cottage. They had the structure moved to Grand Marais to the property of Roy C. Hill, who owned a store that sold Monarch food products. Since approximately 1937 the structure has stood at the northeast corner of Lake Avenue and Randolph Street in Grand Marais, serving as a tourist attraction and, until recently, a tourist information booth operated by the Grand Marais Chamber of Commerce.

Since the structure was moved in the late 1930s, it has been layered with many coats of paint, both on the interior and exterior, which is currently white. Most of the interior furnishings have been removed. The exterior doors and windows have been replaced. Electric power has been added. The structure is now in a deteriorated condition. Some of the staves have buckled at the bottom of the building, creating openings that allow snow to enter. There is also evidence of rot at various locations. Despite this, the overall design of the structure has been preserved, and the site still evokes a sense of what tourists have called "Teenie Weenie Land."