It was early in the roaring twenties. Elis F. Stenman was building his own home. The wooden frame was complete and it came time to outfit it with insulation. Stenman decided to use paper for this pur- pose--he began collecting newspapers, pressed them into one-inch thick material and stuffed the home's frame with it. Then, he left it that way. No wood, no clapboards, no siding--just paper.
And so, the Paper House of Rockport, Massachusetts was born.
Stenman had always been notorious as something of an amateur inventor, and simply decided to see if he could pull off a paper house. He just wanted to see what would happen if he mixed the paper itself with glue and varnish and used it as the walls. The Paper House was completed in 1924 and Stenman lived in it until 1930. It still stands, all paper, some seven decades later.
Even the furniture inside is made of pressed paper. There's a piano inside that is coated in, but not made of, paper. And the mantle over the brick fireplace is, you guessed it, paper.
Aside from being made entirely of paper, the house is rather normal. It has regular electricity and even had running water when it was inhabited. Nowadays, the house is open as a museum and is run by Stenman’s family. Upon entering Rockport, follow Route 127 to Pigeon Cove. Take a left onto Curtis Street then another onto Pigeon Hill Street. It costs $1.50 to get in. They accept paper, not plastic.
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