In 1922, long before there was any municipal recycling program, Elis F Stenman decided that something useful should be done with all those daily newspapers lying about. He and his family set to work folding, rolling and pasting the papers into suitable shapes as building materials. Twenty years and 100,000 newspapers later, they had built the Paper House.
The walls are 215 layers thick, and the furnishings – table, chairs, lamps, sofa, even a grandfather clock and a piano – are all made of newspaper. Some pieces even specialize: one desk is made from Christian Science Monitor reports of Charles Lindbergh’s flight, and the fireplace mantel is made from rotogravures drawn from the Boston Sunday Herald and the New York Herald Tribune . The text is still legible on all of the newspapers so there is built-in reading material (literally).
The Paper House is inland from Pigeon Cove. From MA 27, take Curtiss St to Pigeon Hill Rd.
