“What do you do with an 1857 house that can’t be saved?”

...you make art.

The Crooked House is a life-size (16.5 ft x 22.5 ft.) concrete sculpture of a historic house. It is only five feet from the sidewalk on a main street in a small Pennsylvania town—bringing a piece of contemporary art to the everyday life of the 1,231 residents. The front preserves the details of the house and the back incorporates handprints and mementoes from the 1850s and today.

the essence of home

The Crooked House is a sculpture that examines the essence of home. With only a face that gives the image of a house at its most basic—a door, windows, the angle of the roof and a fireplace—in many ways it resembles a child’s drawing. When you enter The Crooked House, there is a space for you to be at home. While you sit in front of the fireplace, you can see at the history of this house and this town captured in the handprints on the back of the façade. You can build a fire and hang a kettle in the fireplace. While you make yourself at home in a house with no walls and no roof—you can think about what it means to be home. You can trace your handprint onto the wall with a piece of chalk, adding you history to this opened house.

The concept of home is so personal and at the same time universal. We all have homes, but our home is more than a roof over our heads and somewhere to shelter from the weather. Homes contain our history, our memories and give meaning to our days. We sell and buy houses—we move our home with us wherever we go.

the Timeline

2021— Work on sculpture panels and full-scale mock-up of sculptural components continue. The Crooked House becomes a “Centre Gives” organization.
2020—A national health crisis (COVID-19) shuts down the nation. Warehouse workspace with access to 30 ton crane secured. Work on sculpture panels begins. The Crooked House becomes an official 501(c)3. Grant award from Happy Valley Adventure Bureau.
2018-2019—Design and production of concrete facade molds. Full-scale mock-up of sculptural components in production. PA Council on the Arts grants (#7 & 8) awarded.
2017—Excavation and pouring of sculpture foundation. Patio, walkway, and retaining wall hardscape completed. Landscaping of Homecoming Park begun. PA Council on the Arts grant awarded.
2016—Engineer stamped structural drawing issued. Fireplace is righted and foundation installed, engineering design approved and site prepped. PA Council on the Arts (#6) grant awarded.
2015—The house is dismantled with the façade preserved for casting. Fireplace underpinned for new foundation. Building Permit Extension #2 received. PA Council on the Arts grant #5 awarded.
2012–2014—Interior scaffolding built to hold up structure and dismantling begins. Interior walls removed, fireplace made sound. Friend of the Crooked House donates materials, heavy machinery rentals, and skilled labor. Grants from PA Council on the Arts (#3 & 4) and the Puffin Foundation awarded. Building Permit Extension #1 issued.
2012—Workshop studio opened, regular studies and modeling experiments for the casting process underway. Fireplace restoration studies begin. Community open house visitors contribute their handprints and memories of home. PA Council on the Arts grant (#2) awarded.
2009–2011— The Crooked House accepted as Benjamin’s Masters of Fine Arts thesis project, advisory committee formed. Project presented to Milesburg Borough Council and a 3-year building permit issued. PA Council on the Arts (PCA) grant awarded and the project wins 1st place in the Penn State Graduate Student project exhibit.
2006–2009—Dreaming, designing and drawing new ideas for the old house, Benjamin also begins a new house to live in at the back of the property.
2005—The house begins to lean as layers of wallpaper and interior finishes are removed. A massive stone fireplace is discovered behind a wall. Insurmountable structural issues revealed and restoration is halted.
2004—The property at 204 Market Street purchased at auction.

it's about home.

Benjamin Fehl | Artist. Architect.

“For me, I’m very interested in ‘home,’ having traveled a lot, not really having places to call home...The questions are: What is it to be homeless? Is home a shelter over your head? What does it mean to go home? These ideas of what home means to the individual vary.”

from CDT

We’re honored to participate in the 2021 CENTRE GIVES — Centre Foundation's 36-hour online giving event is set to begin on May 11 at 9 am and conclude on May 12 at 9 pm. This event is designed to support the great work of local nonprofits serving Ce… — We’re honored to participate in the 2021 CENTRE GIVES — Centre Foundation's 36-hour online giving event is set to begin on May 11 at 9 am and conclude on May 12 at 9 pm. This event is designed to support the great work of local nonprofits serving Centre County.
Thank you for supporting The Crooked House during CENTRE GIVES.

the short story

I bought this house at auction intending to restore it. As I removed layers of wallpaper, the house started to lose its internal support and began to lean—eventually taking on enough of a tilt to become known as “The Crooked House.” It only took me 6 weeks of work to realize that it just couldn’t be salvaged. I didn’t want to bulldoze this piece of Milesburg history—this house belonged to Abigail Miles, a niece of the town founder—but I couldn’t save it as a house. After much worrying, dreaming, and drawing, the idea to preserve the façade in concrete was born. That's grown to include donating property to create Homecoming Park and salvaging a stone fireplace that was hidden in the walls.

the long story

This community art project grew out of my graduate studies in both architecture and art. In each program I spent a great deal of time exploring the concept of what home means to us and The Crooked House project grew out of this. The real story takes place over a decade of research, planning and hard work. The project involves not only creating a concrete casting of the front of the historic house and repointing the stone fireplace to be a freestanding hearth, but also dedicating the property around where the house stood as a public park—Homecoming Park.

I started on this journey back in 2006 as an artist with an idea—over the years I’ve had the good fortune of gathering a team of volunteers and supporters, known as Friends of The Crooked House.

These friends have joined me in 1,000s of hours of work—dismantling the house, preserving the façade, repointing a 160 year-old fireplace and excavating the foundation. They’ve donated their expertise, hard work, money, materials, and equipment to bring The Crooked House to this point

We have a hard deadline of March 2017 to finish the project. Since 2011 project has been funded with several small grants, donations and discounts, use of equipment, and using my savings to pay for skilled labor and materials. Slow and cheap has meant the good use of project resources…up to now.

The finish line is in sight. We need your help to purchase the materials to cast the sculpture. You can be a patron of the arts and support arts access for rural communities by funding the materials to cast The Crooked House in concrete.