Photo via Kohler Foundation, Inc.
Mary Nohl with sculptures
Mary Nohl with her sculptures
Mary Nohl was an incredibly misunderstood artist. She despised being described as “naive,” but was amused when people referred to her as a “witch,” which couldn’t be further from the truth. She got a kick out of the term so much that she embedded the greeting “BOO” on her front steps doormat.
Some people think artists like Nohl are quaint or eccentric. They are fully aware of what's going on in the world, and in return they create incredible works of art. She had a wonderful knack for seeing the possibility of creating art in anything, from a TV dinner tray to a piece of wood. When she was in eighth grade, she was the only girl to win a prize in a district airplane-building contest, earning $500 and a ride on a pontoon-equipped Hamilton plane.
In 1943, Nohl founded her own production pottery studio at 5644 North Green Bay Road. She produced a vast array of ceramic wares for gift shops in five states. In 1954, when area redevelopment required the building’s demolition, she was forced to close her studio.
Public Display
She worked most days for many hours on sculpture, mosaic, or painting. While her parents were alive, she was not allowed to alter the house, hang her art or place sculptures in the yard, even though she had already amassed a very large body of work. Her ideas for transforming her house and yard were restrained by her mother’s disapproval, though she began sneaking works into the yard while her mother was still alive. It wasn’t until 1963, after the death of her parents and brother, that Mary began to publicly display her art.
While Nohl’s isolation nurtured her creative juices, it inhibited a wider appreciation of her art. It is very high-quality work that could have hung in the finest museums and galleries across the world. Most of her art, visible around her home and at John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, dates to this period, and more than 60 statues are showcased in her yard.
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Over the years, the property (and Nohl) began to attract attention. High school students would challenge each other to spend time on the “spooky” property. Vandalism became a nightly affair. Mary started every day by inspecting the property and repairing the damage. According to letters she wrote at the time, she enjoyed the attention to some extent and enjoyed the opportunity to rework some of her art.
Photo by Adam Levin
Mary Nohl Sculpture
Mary Nohl sculpture
Eventually the vandalism became too great, and she was forced to install a fence. Fox Point Police Capt. Charles Pieper told the Milwaukee Journal in 1973: “Miss Nohl gets more police protection than anybody else in Fox Point and we still haven’t been able to round up all the troublemakers.” One of many rumors about her, which is false, was that her husband and young son left one day to go sailing on Lake Michigan and drowned in a storm. She then made statues every day awaiting their return from sea. Nohl never married nor had children.
When Milwaukee’s own Violent Femmes were looking for a dramatic location to shoot a back cover photo for their 1984 album Hallowed Ground, they immediately thought of the magical dreamscape of Mary Nohl’s garden on the Lake Michigan shoreline. According to the Femmes former drummer Victor DeLorenzo, “Mary was a bit confused when three men (no femmes?) showed up to meet her, but she graciously invited us into her cottage/museum to view her art and talk about the possibility of a photo session with us among her collection of giant heads, tiny creatures and fish gates! I’m not quite sure why Mary gave us permission, but I'm very grateful that she did. Mary was a true eccentric, in the Wisconsin tradition of farm raised surrealism.”
It’s a Landmark
Prior to her death in 2001 at the age of 87, The Kohler Foundation worked with her to plan for the future of the property. In 2005 Mary Nohl’s home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and it was named a Milwaukee County Landmark in 2006. In 2012 the John Michael Kohler Arts Center received the property and the individual artworks from the foundation. The Kohler Arts Center came to the disheartening decision in March 2014 that the home would be dismantled and moved piece by piece to a site in Sheboygan County, where the public could have ready access to it.
The Nohl home was scheduled to be dismantled that summer; as months went by the house still stood where it belonged and there wasn’t any news about the status of the home. In March 2015, the Kohler Arts Center reversed its plans to move “The Witch’s House” from Fox Point to Sheboygan. Their research by conservators determined logistical challenges that could put the art and home at “devastating risk.”
Today the home is still zoned as residential and not open to the public. The Kohler Arts Center continues to preserve and study the site, with an artist who occasionally takes up residence.
“No amount of disorder will induce me to give up my front row seat on the changing moods of Lake Michigan. The ice hills against the blue water in the winter, and the afterglow of the sunsets in the summer, and the infinite variety in between.” said Mary Nohl.
Adam Levin is administrator of the Old Milwaukee Facebook group. facebook.com/groups/oldmilwaukee/ ,and author of Fading Ads of Milwaukee.
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Photo by Adam Levin
Mary Nohl house
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Photo by Adam Levin
Mary Nohl house
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Photo via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Mary Nohl in 1973
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Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground back cover photo at Mary Nohl house
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Photo courtesy Brian Cronk
"I was digging through old photos. Here is me (white shirt) and my older brother (on ladder) when he was helping Mary Nohl put the barbed wire up around her house in the late '70s. We lived 2 houses down from her... You can see her garage in the background." - Brian Cronk
