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"Korner's
Folley Celebrates Its 125th Birthday"
- By Karen Olsen House (click here for the PDF version)
 Korner's
Folly, dubbed "The Strangest House in the World,"
has long amused visitors who gape at its fanciful Victorian
rooms and showy furniture. Starting next month, the historic
home in Kernersville hosts a year-long set of activities to
celebrate its 125th anniversary. Festivities include a community
party with barbecue and masquerade costume ball on April 2,
and an ice cream social on June 25.
The eccentric Victorian structure was born when a dapper interior
designer named Jule Korner broke ground on what he intended
to be a showplace home. His unconventional design rose in the
sky at a snail's pace, and reportedly caused a local to remark,
"That will surely be Korner's folly." Jule overheard
the crack and delightedly named his house thus, even setting
an ornate nameplate out front. When Korner's Folly was "finished"
in 1880, Jule continued to vigorously revamp it.
The house's original design featured three floors, but because
Jule placed steps, up or down, at most doorways, the house has
seven staggered levels. Ceiling heights for the Folly's 22 rooms
range from six on up to 25 feet.
Jule's ad hoc approach included transforming stables into a
sewing room/library and turning the drive-through carriageway
into a dining room. Shortly before his marriage to Polly Alice
Masten, he renovated rooms for family life, converting storage
spaces into children's playrooms with floor-to-ceiling windows
visible from rooms below.
 On
the front porch, the words "Witches Corner" are playfully
inscribed into the tile, arranged to appear as throw rugs. Inside,
intricately carved moldings frame the ceilings, with other decorative
flourishes in abundance such as silk damask panels, maiden statues
and painted frescoes. Jule was afraid of fire and only permitted
cigars in a tiled "smoker" room.
One window there is about three feet high,while the other
extends upward and is shared by a room upstairs. Neither window
opens. The master bedroom includes grand furniture Jule designed,
such as his S-shaped conversation chair. It's a three seater,
with room for a chaperone. Many of Jule's inventive pieces were
so massive they could not fit through doors and were constructed
in the room. Jule also included whimsical "courting corners"
where guests could sneak smooches behind silk curtains.
In keeping with its experimental spirit, Korner's Folly boasts
the first little private theater in the United States, located
in soaring attic space. Like Jule, his well-traveled wife (who
went by "Alice") loved the arts. The Folly's theater
got its start when a local girl came back from Boston hoping
to give an elocution recital, only to be denied use of all community
meeting places. In that time, play-acting was considered sinful.
Alice decided to present her at the Folly.
Korner died feeling that his work-in-progress was unfinished.
Later, the house fell into neglect and eventually Preservation
North Carolina oversaw the establishment of Korner's Folly Foundation,
which owns it now. "There are no two rooms alike:' says
Connie Martin, the foundation's executive director. "People
are amazed at its insight and ingenuity." Today, the plays
live on at the Folly every fall, staged by the Kernersville
Little Theatre, along with family puppet shows per formed every
fourth Saturday. And just like its original owner, the house
still causes talk.
"There are no two rooms alike. People are amazed at its
insight and ingenuity. " -Connie Martin
Executive Director Preservation North Carolina
Korner's Folly
413 South Main Street Kernersville, NC 27284
Open Thursday-Sunday. Admission fee.
For a current schedule of anniversary events, call (336) 996-7922
or visit www.kornersfolly.org
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