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Wisconsin's Door Peninsula in Lake Michigan has long been a
tourist Mecca. And Washington Island, a half-hour ferry ride from
its tip, is well known for having the largest concentration of
Americans of Icelandic descent. Just a ten-minute ferry ride
beyond Washington Island is Rock Island and Rock Island Park that
keeps the Viking Hall and its carved furnishing. It was
Halldór Einarsson who carved the furniture for the Chicago
inventor and businessman Chester Hjörtur Thordarson
(1867-1945).
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wanted to furnish his library. I was hired to do the
carving in a Nordic style. 24 chairs were made and
3 "president" chairs, big chairs and two massive reading
tables, very big and long and some smaller things,
tables and baskets and his own table which he himself
valued at 6 thousand dollars. I worked for him for
a year and a half and then a few years later on his
island. He had bought the larger part of an island
in Lake Michigan. He spent a lot of money on buildings...
When I first came there 1600 people were in his employment.
On the island he had 60 to 70 people working for him."
(From an interview with Einarsson by Páll Lýðsson
in March 1975) |
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| Chester Hjörtur Thordarson (1867-1945) immigrated from
Iceland in 1873 and retained a great love for his native land and
its traditions. In building his country estate on the Rock Island
property he acquired in 1910, Thordarson strove to recapture the
homeland of his memory and imagination. The architectural pinnacle
of his accomplishments was Viking Hall, whose lower level opens
onto Lake Michigan and served as a boat house. The high-lofted
room upstairs measures 70 by 140 feet and served Thordarson as a
library and banquet hall. Despite its massive walls, Viking Hall's
interior is light and airy because of the large windows on three
sides. The fourth side features a balcony that sits atop a huge
fireplace and overlooks the library-banquet area. Here in the
library is the carved oak furniture with scenes from Norse
mythology. |
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In
1999 Douglas "Dag" Rossman and Sharon C. Rossman published
the book Valhalla in America, Norse Myths in Wood
at Rock Island State Park, Wisconsin. In the book they relate
the story of Thordarson and Einarsson and give their interpretation
of the carvings on the furniture in Viking Hall.
Photos and information were borrowed from the book with
permission of the publishers.
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