Many years ago I wrote up my personal experience with Follies, as part of my long-term theme of Science as Entertainment. Some of the best science labs were Follies in this sense, structures added to a house or yard purely to entertain or amuse guests or neighbors.
One of my personal experiences was a house across the street from Grandma’s apartment in Ponca. Last year the house to the north was for sale, and I wrote up a complete description of the folly itself.
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Last night I was randomly checking Zillow’s listings for Ponca. Noticed this big house at 413 N. 3rd. The address sounded close to Grandma’s former apartment, and the house looked familiar. Is it the Folly House? Not quite. It’s next door to the Folly House.
From Google streets:
413, the Zillow listing, is to the right, 417, the Folly House, is to the left. Grandma’s apartment (brick building) is across the street behind the red car.
Here’s the corner side of the Folly House as it was seen from Grandma’s front porch. A beautiful stone fish pond, with colorful tropical fish, was in front of the bay window, and I remember a display window in the wall next to the bay window. The fish pond looked like this fountain. The display featured a variety of beautiful objects. Looking at it now, I don’t see where the display window could have been; maybe the bay window itself held the displays.
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Now the Folly House itself is for sale, so I can see the inside. The inside still doesn’t answer my mystery properly!
Front view, with Grandma’s apartment (balcony) visible across the street to the left:
Back view:
Inside the living room, at the important point. My memory is fairly clear that the display case was off the living room to the left of the big bay window, with a cabinet-type glass door on the inside leading to the display case. Similar to the front display window in old storefronts. Now there’s no opening on the inside and no display case on the outside. There’s more space for a display case next to the regular windows in the front room. On the outside it would be to the right of the bay window. Maybe that’s where the case was.
The upper floor has several oddly-shaped rooms with windows on the floor, a folly in the usual sense! I couldn’t stand to live there. How would you open those windows? A child or dog could just walk out without thinking, and a misplaced foot would be dangerous. Imagine getting out of bed on a nice cool morning with the curtains open. What would a casual passerby see?
Polistra's Mill 