Situated in an upscale neighborhood in suburban Fox Point is a one and one-third lot on the west…read moreshore of Lake Michigan. On this lot is a modest home that belonged to Mary Nohl. What makes it unique is Ms. Nohl's collection of sculptures, silhouettes and paintings that surround the cottage and are part of it. Technically it is named the Mary Nohl Art Environment but in popular lore it is also known as "The Witch's House".
Mary L. Nohl was born in 1914, the youngest of three children. Her father, Leo Nohl was a noted attorney in Milwaukee. In 1924, he purchased this parcel of land on the shore of Lake Michigan to build a summer home for his family. Mary graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938 and started a career as an art teacher in Baltimore junior high schools. Unhappy as a teacher, she gave up teaching and returned home to pursue her art. She ran her own commercial pottery studio for 10 years. When the studio was in the path of what is today I-43, she closed it and returned here, where she stayed. (Her oldest sibling died as an infant and her famous brother, marine engineer Max Nohl, died in a tragic head-on collision in 1960.)
Her mother passed away in 1968, leaving her the home on the shore of Lake Michigan and enough of a fortune to live out her life and pursue her artwork. She created sculptures with concrete, stone and tree trunks. Her whimsical subjects were mystical creatures, fish, children, mythical structures, couples and a miniature Easter Island display comprised of four sculpted Moai-like heads. If you were fortunate enough to visit this home, you would also have seen groups of stylized figures and architectural structures.
Ms. Nohl's reclusive nature and unusual artworks were the subject of numerous urban myths. She was rumored to be a witch ("The Witch of Fox Point") and her home became known as "The Witch's House." Mary took it in stride, even creating a mosaic on her front porch that spells, "BOO!"
Her property was the target of many youthful visits, most by the curious, but some visits were from malicious vandals. No matter how many more reasonable explanations were made, the popular culture persisted. The vandalism forced her to put up a chain link fence with barbed wire topping it.
Ms. Nohl passed away in 2001. She left her estate to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, her property, and all her artwork to the Kohler Foundation. The Kohler Foundation is a friend of the arts and restores art sites in Wisconsin and around the country. Several of the sculptures were removed to the Kohler Foundation facilities for restoration.
Local zoning prohibits the property from being opened as a museum, but the Kohler Foundation maintains the site, it is restoring artwork that needs attention and keeps someone at the property at all times.
The Greater Milwaukee Foundation used her gift to fund the Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists program administered by the Bradley Family Foundation.
At one time, the Kohler Foundation planned to dismantle Ms. Nohl's home and carefully move it to Sheboygan County. The sculptures were also to be moved and the site recreated in a safe and viewable place. However, the sculptures are too fragile to move and will remain onsite and for now, inaccessible.
Parking is virtually impossible and you are not allowed on the property. You can only view the artwork through the fence, but there are coffee table books published about Ms. Nohl and her delightful artworks.
Despite the rumors and legends, despite what her neighbors might (or might not) think about her and her home, Mary L. Nohl was a friend of the arts, and dedicated to her work as an artist. She was more than just an artist. Her life was art, and she lived her art, right here on the shore of Lake Michigan.
