Building a Grind Building and Its Life: A Center of Experiential Archeology on a College Campus
Learn about the “Viking House” on the campus of University of Wisconsin Green Bay with hosts Owen Christianson, who built the original version of the Grind Building, and Heidi Sherman, who was the driving force for bringing the Grind Building to campus.
The Christiansons built this Norwegian timber-framed house in 2011 on their land near the village of Stratford, Wisconsin. They built the house based on careful research of Viking-Age building traditions in Norway. Their dream was to use it for both reenactment and educational purposes.
In 2017, members from Professor Heidi Sherman’s capstone class spent three days with the Christiansons, carefully disassembling and numbering each piece of the house. They then reconstructed it on the Green Bay campus.
Find out about the work that went into moving and maintaining this living piece of history from the two who helped make it a reality.
Heidi and Owen also wrote the book The Viking House Saga available through Vesterheim Museum Store.