Vogl House

Bohemian immigrants John and Wilhelmine Vogl raised chickens on this farm southwest of Felton, supposedly having seen the property advertised in a Prague newspaper. They purchased a concrete-block-making machine from Sears, Roebuck (it still survives) and built their own H-shaped house with hipped roofs, with the help of their eight children, in a folk style recalling the stone architecture of their native Bohemia. The concrete blocks are rusticated for the quoins and smooth for the walls, and the cornice is adorned with a concrete egg-and-dart motif. There is a strange Ionic porch with a balcony above, also of concrete, as are the various outbuildings: silo, milk house, garden house, chicken house, even a dog house. Concrete statues of animals adorn the lawn. Inside the home, Wilhelmine painted pictures on fibreboard walls and ceilings, completing an exuberant tableau unique in Delaware.