Hubby and I were in Rockport, MA looking at the sights. Not only was motif # 1, on our list, so was the Paper House. The man, Sven Stenman built it as a hobby. The outside walls are made of 215 thicknesses of paper, about half an inch thick. Then many coats of varnish were applied. There's a normal roof which has protected it all these years.
Mr. Stenman also built this grandfather clock. It was made from newspapers from the then 48 states. Once word got around that he was building a house entirely made of paper, people sent him plenty.
There's a desk made from the Christian Science Monitor; a cot containing some papers saved since World War I; a piano covered with paper rolls; a radio cabinet made in 1928 during Hoover's campaign; a writing desk made of news from Lindberg's transatlantic voyage; a bookshelf made of newspapers from foreign countries; a fireplace mantel made of the rotogravure section of the Boston Sunday Herald and New York Herald Tribune.
He worked on it for twenty years. He and his wife lived in it for four years. It had running water, electricity, but not toilet. Don't you like the curtains made out of paper? Very clever.
He might have built it with the Lord's help, because the caretaker, a grand niece, has a statue of St. Francis on her lawn.
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain
