Mercer created two other concrete structures - a museum and a tile works - in Doylestown, his home town north of Philadelphia. From a distance, the castle's quite cute. As you get closer, imperfections become clearer. The concrete looks like a wasp's nest and the lines are not quite parallel:
Inside, many surfaces are filled with low relief tile which is quite often beautiful:
Mercer embedded his own tile in many of the ceilings:
Chapman also displayed tile which he had collected:
Because he wanted his home to be a museum, Mercer created tile legends to identify some of the exhibited tile. In the following, Mercer has created the framing tile and the legend in the center of this display:
A display of tile explained in tile, the lettering itself reminds me of toy magnetic letters which I used to play with. The effect is weirdly juvenile in its unevenness. Most open surfaces are heavily decorated in this manner.
Some rooms contain wooden furniture which appears poorly constructed. Because the walls and floors are not even and level, the furniture bends and sways with uneven gaps and angles that just aren't right.
The house is also frequently very dark and claustrophobic. Halls and stairways are narrow and large structural pieces jut out through the ceiling.
By the end of the tour, I was glad to leave the house. While it is fascinating, it is also insane. I imagined a homeless person chewing wads of toilet paper to line the walls of his refrigerator box home, adorned with tin foil ornaments. It feels like outsider art, like the product of obsession.
It's totally fascinating, but less than homey. I am glad that I visited, but left the home feeling disturbed.
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