Henry Mercer

Henry Mercer led an exciting, albeit, unconventional life from an early age. his father was in the military, and his mother was of wealth, and he was caught in the middle. Perhaps it was  the trip to Germany when he was 14, despite the deadly Franco-Prussian war that was well underway, that made him interested in early American artifacts, specifically tools. not the typical hobbies of a 14 year old boy in the late 1800's, but it led to greater things. 

Henry began living on boats and exploring rivers and seas, he collected what he could and eventually returned to the US in the early 1900's. Henry's interests moved around, and after creating a massive collection of early American artifacts, he decided to look into the world of tiles. he was able to work at his leisure after inheriting a massive amount of money from his aunt. after a few years of creating mosaics on the floors of various buildings, he decided that it would be interesting to create works of art in the form of houses. he began building the houses from the inside out and  filled them in with concrete he would build the houses room by room. Henry was able to build three houses (one of which was destined to become a museum for all that he had collected) in this fashion.

Mercer also loved dogs... so much so that upon hearing that all of the loose dogs that were in the streets would be killed after 5 days he promptly got collars and put one on each dog, claiming that they were all his.

Henry died a while after creating his last house, he had become infected with a number of venereal diseases, which, at the time, there were no cures. Mercer left a legacy of artifacts, street dogs and massive concrete buildings for the rest of the century to enjoy.