Kaleva — On the corner of Wuoksi and Kauko there is a house made of bottles. From a distance it looks like any other house. The roof is shaped like a capital A, there are a few old windows on the second floor, and a little chimney puffs smoke into the wintery sky. But the sides aren’t vinyl or wood. They aren’t painted or molded. They glimmer when the light is right and when you squint your eyes.
Parking my car, I step out and onto a poorly plowed street covered in graying snow sitting on a thick layer of ice. There’s a black truck idling with no one in it about 15 feet away. It’s got a custom license plate that reads “SISU2”. There’s a smaller truck in front of that one with a bumper sticker on the cab window that reads “SISU” as well. Sisu is a Finnish word that’s not easily translated into English. It’s generally translated as being a combination of stoic determination, grit, resilience, hardiness, and strength.
Hopping over the snow and onto the sidewalk I wander in front of the Bottle House and up the stairs. To my right there’s a steel green plaque marking this house a Michigan Historic Site. To my left there’s a welcome sign with a Finnish flag hanging from the side. On the front of the house, meticulously placed dark bottles spell “HAPPY HOME”.
Past the old screen door and a wooden one after that, through the cold unheated porch and into the house, there’s an older gentleman at a single desk in the middle of the room. His arms are tattooed, his face thin and wrinkled, his voice friendly. He’s Mike Bagley, a member of the museum board, and one of the nicest guys you’ll meet.
He says he was about to fall asleep until we walked in. In December the Bottle House is only open Saturdays and Sundays, four hours each day. I’m not sure there were too many other visitors on a cold Sunday in late December. Bagley kindly tells me all about the house we are standing in. How John Makinen was born in 1871 in Finland, came to Kaleva in 1903, owned Northwestern Bottling Works for some time, and then built his house out of 60,000 flawed and unused bottles from the factory.
He says Makinen finished building his Bottle House in 1941, though he died shortly after the house was completed and never had the chance to live in the home himself. His family, however, did eventually move in and live there for some years after. Eventually, in 1980, the home was bought by the Kaleva Historical Society and turned into a museum honoring both Makinen and the Finnish heritage of this little town.
Wandering through The Bottle House is like walking through something part ethno-warp part time-warp. The kitchen is the same as it always was. Same for the bathroom and the bedrooms. Every corner of the house is full of all sorts of Finnish stuff. Old black and white photos of Makinen and others, old clothes, books for children, toys, traditional blankets, and everything else of old-world Finnish life. There’s a beautiful old map of Finland on the wall next to the stairs on the second floor, ladles and serving spoons Makinen’s family used, mid-century spices waiting on a rack, and almost too much to see. There are signs and paintings with phrases written in the Finnish language with beautiful script.
Outside, next to the house is a little building that looks like a log cabin. There’s a sign that reads, “Traditional Finnish Sauna” in front.
The Bottle House is a funny idea. Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book, doesn’t it? It’s an old-timey idea too. Back in the days when Makinen built his house people didn’t have much money. I know it’s in vogue to complain about how hard things are today, but they’re not. They were back then. Living though the Great Depression and World War II is something most people alive can’t really get their heads around, but that’s when Makinen lived and when he built his house.
When you don’t have any money, you make do with what you’ve got. They did that back then. How much money did Makinen save by using those 60,000 bottles when building his house? Quite a bit I am sure. Perhaps it was the difference between building a house and not building a house.
So there’s something funny and old-timey here, but there’s also something “sisu” here in The Bottle House. How it was built back in the early part of the 20th century, and how it, and the Finnish history of the town, are maintained in the 21st. Grit, determination, and resilience.
There’s something about that in Kaleva too. Indeed, the Finns settled in a suitable place for a word that characterizes their national spirit. A fitting word for the deep north, a word I first learned from the custom license plate on the idling truck on Kauko street outside The Bottle House. A word I will continue to ruminate on up in the deep north during the long winter.
O.W. Root is a writer based in Northern Michigan, with a focus on nature, food, style, and culture. Follow him on X @owroot.
