Anderson House

The centerpiece of The Corner of the Past, the Old Anderson House is believed to have been constructed in the Marinette/Menominee area in the 1870s and moved to this location across the ice of Green Bay — in whole or in part — in the late 1800s. Beginning in the 1910s, it was the home of Alex Anderson, his wife Emma, and their two children, Sceone and Ivan.

A few years after Alex died in 1915, the family began moving to other locations, but kept coming back here during the summers. By the 1950s, the visits had stopped, and after years of deterioration, the Village bought it in 1993 with the intent of tearing it down.  A local science teacher intervened to help save the house, and in 1997, after thousands of hours of volunteer work from member of the newly formed Sister Bay Historical Society, the restored house was opened to the public as the Old Anderson House Museum.

Some other buildings in Door County are known to have come across Green Bay from the Marinette area, and a number of features of the house give support to the idea that it also had come from there. Those unique features included a house number and fancy window pediments, which were not typical for a Sister Bay farmhouse. Other buildings in Door County are also known to have been brought across the ice from the Marinette area, like the Whistling Swan Inn and restaurant in Fish Creek.

Many structural features of the house remain intact. In the kitchen, for example, you will find the original flooring — simply scraped and restained — plus the original ceiling, original wainscoting on the walls, and a number of original windows. The house had no indoor plumbing — the pump for water is still located in the back yard, and there would have been an outhouse similar to the one across the parking lot. Heat was provided through wood stoves. Electricity and baseboard heating were added during the 1990s restoration.

A number of the furnishings are original to the house, and were donated by various family members. Others have come through the generosity of area residents.

Sister Bay Historical Society. Old Anderson House and Museum. Accessed July 31st, 2022. https://sisterbayhistory.org/museum/the-old-anderson-house-museum/.