The Glass House, built by David H. Brown, is located on the east shore of

Kootenay Lake Kootenay Lake is a lake located in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Kootenay River. The lake has been raised by the Corra Linn Dam and has a dike system at the southern end, which, along with industry in the 1950s–70s, has changed th ...

in British Columbia near the rural locality of

Boswell, British Columbia Boswell is an unincorporated community in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The former steamboat landing and temporary ferry terminal is adjacent to McGregor Creek on the east shore of the south arm of Kootenay Lake. Comp ...

. Construction started in 1952 in order to, according to a quote left by Mr. Brown, "indulge a whim of a peculiar nature". Intended to be the Browns' home, the unusual construction and fantasy-castle appearance attracted traffic from the adjacent

British Columbia Highway 3A Highway 3A is the designation of two segments of highway in the southern part of British Columbia. Castlegar-Nelson-Creston Highway This was the first segment of highway in British Columbia to receive the '3A' designation. It acquired this de ...

(now part of the scenic

International Selkirk Loop The International Selkirk Loop is a scenic highway in the U.S. states of Idaho and Washington, as well as the Canadian province of British Columbia. The loop encircles the Selkirk Mountain Range, and offers several side trips aside from the mai ...

). The resulting loss of privacy led to the Browns' establishment of a

roadside attraction A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road meant to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere, rather than actually being a destination. They are frequently advertised with billboards. T ...

in the summer months. The Glass House sits upon solid rock overlooking

and is constructed of approximately 500,000 empty

embalming fluid Embalming chemicals are a variety of preservatives, sanitising and disinfectant agents, and additives used in modern embalming to temporarily prevent decomposition and restore a natural appearance for viewing a body after death. A mixture of the ...

bottles, which would have otherwise been discarded as waste. Built with a single layer of bottles laid with the short neck towards the inside, strips of wood were wired between the necks and reinforced with cement. The strips of wood then support the inner walls formed of cedar boards. Glass house lookout british columbia

The main house is built like a three-leaf clover with the main rooms being circular. A short staircase in the center accounts for the different heights created by the rock on which the house sits. The main floor contains the living room with a large fireplace, the master bedroom, and a kitchen overlooking a terrace. A second bedroom resides upstairs, off-limits to visitors, and brings the total square footage to 1200 (approximately 111 square metres). Additional structures include a

wishing well A wishing well is a term from European folklore to describe wells where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted. The idea that a wish would be granted came from the notion that water housed deities or had been placed there as a ...

with

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

, an archway, a garden shed, a bridge, several towers, and many stone stairs and pathways. These additional buildings are also primarily constructed with the same technique as the house.

References

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