KERNERSVILLE, N.C. (WFMY) – On South Main Street in Kernersville sits a house like none you’ve ever seen before.
Körner's Folly was built in 1878 by interior designer and artist Jules Gilmer Körner as a real-life catalogue for his clients, which explains the unique shapes and sizes of every corner of the home.
“It certainly looks strange and looks very unique at first blush, but when you go through, Jule actually had a lot of reasons for creating the design choices that he did in the house,” said Dale Pennington, Executive Director of the Körner's Folly Foundation.
Despite this business tactic, the entire Körner family did live in the home.
The inside of the Folly has charmed the Triad and its visitors for over a century with 22 rooms across three stories and, catch this: seven levels.
“There’s really nothing like Korner’s Folly, in North Carolina but also throughout the country, it’s just such a unique home,” shared Pennington.
And it is.
No two rooms are alike…
Some rooms have 5 ½ foot ceilings like the children’s playrooms, while others like the Cupid’s Theatre on the top floor are over 20 feet high.
The welcome room is an extravagant hall with marble sculptures, ceiling paintings and murals decorating the walls.
The curiosity of the house is obviously not just in the structure, the oddities are also in the name.
“The rumor was that this house would one day be Jule Körner’s folly: his extravagance, his mistake. Jule caught wind of this rumor around town and thought the Folly was the perfect name for his home,” Pennington explained.
On Easter say in 1880, Körner held a reception for family and neighbors to tour his Folly.
Today, Körner’s Folly is no longer be inhabited, but it is still visited, admired and questioned by those who come to Kernersville, as Körner would have wanted.
The Körner’s Folly Foundation is the group dedicated to restoring and preserving the home for educational and entertainment purposes.
According to Pennington, there is a bright future ahead for Körner’s Folly and the Town of Kernersville as they will partner to build a new Visitor’s Center with the help of a 2019-2020 fundraising campaign.
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