Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

by

Nestling into the hills above scenic Highway 61, the small bright red cabin with white trim commands a splendid view of Lake Superior spread in all its glory below.

The Dragonfly House, as its owners lovingly call it, tucks into a landscape of aspen, birch, prairie grasses and flowers. It’s more than a Lundie-inspired cabin; it’s a house built from dreams.

The dream began in 1998, when Sheila Smith evaluated what she most wanted in life. Two goals predominated.

First on that list was to marry Perry McGowan, a certified public accountant with CliftonLarsonAllen in Minneapolis. She’d set her sights on him six years earlier and they had been dating since then. Second was to own a cabin on Minnesota’s North Shore, a dream she’d fostered since childhood when every summer her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins journeyed north from the Twin Cities in search of an allergy-free environment at various small resorts in the area.

Marriage with Perry awaited his move, but Sheila determined to make her dream cabin a reality on her own. Juggling other pressing goals related to her job as executive director of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, Sheila immediately began scouting the North Shore. That summer of 1998, she found and bought land.

While touring North Shore homes with the state’s Society of Architectural Historians, she became charmed by the work of St. Paul architect Edwin Lundie. The prolific architect, who was born in 1917 and died in 1972, designed Lutsen Resort as well as a number of shoreside cottages by Lake Superior. He was renowned for finely crafted woodwork elements and Scandinavian influence.

Sheila wanted to include aspects of his design ideas into her blueprint. She enrolled in a “Build Your Own Timber Frame” class at North House Folk School in Grand Marais. It didn’t take long to realize, though, that building the cabin herself was not feasible. She hired her instructors, Bob Martin and Virginia Danfelt, to build it for her and hired Tim Bauer of Grand Marais as general contractor.

In early March 2000, Sheila and her parents drove north to sit on lawn chairs in the falling snow and watch as the frame assembled and lifted by crane onto the prepared basement and foundation.

They held a little dedication ceremony in the snow and, with a big wooden mallet, knocked in the last wooden peg holding the frame. This peg came from their honeymoon trip to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London, also a timber-frame building.

Inspired by the large, complex frameworks of the Lundie cabins (large timbers making them look more rustic), they opted to use an oversized “king post,” a central post extending vertically from a crossbeam and center-supporting two trusses creating a dissected, upside down “V.”

“The cabin was actually over-engineered for one its size, but I chose oversized timbers because they looked good,” Sheila says. “I think the cabin could survive a tornado should one ever strike up here.”

Sheila had already designed the little home and started construction when her other dream came true. Perry proposed.

The small cabin would be perfect for two; they didn’t need a lot of room. Even so, with a footprint of 580 square feet on each of two floors, the cabin could actually accommodate up to 11 people, Sheila says, “if everyone could be friendly.”

Though compact, this home wasn’t built in a day. Sheila and Perry considered it a 15-year art project, built in sections as they could afford it and continually embellished with new ideas and carving so that it’s never really finished.

They named it for the resident swarms of dragonflies they enjoy in their yard every summer and that keep other flying insects at a minimum.

Dragonfly House has a lovely spaciousness, enhanced by oversized windows with expansive views.

Artistic dragonfly creations from around the world cluster on corner timbers separating the first floor living room from the kitchen.

The galley kitchen is tiny but adequate. “I didn’t come up here to prepare gourmet meals,” Sheila says. “We come to rest in a place with no internet, WiFi or TV to interrupt our day.”

The couple count as perfect those cabin days spent reading, resting, playing dominoes and recuperating from their high-pressure jobs in the big city.

As soon as the cabin’s basic structure was closed to the elements, they began to spend days and nights there. Before it was fully shut off, an occasional bee would get trapped in the lower level – which acted as a giant sound chamber – and its frantic buzzing reached them easily through the particleboard floor that separated upper from lower level.

While the cabin remained Sheila’s project, Perry pitched in by painting the outside with a gang of friends (a red that matched Lundie’s preferred color), and he provided the constant moral support needed for any long-term building project.

Perry suggested asking his dad to make the molding and ash flooring, done in random widths with walnut pegs. His dad, Jack McGowan, 91, still goes to work every day at McGowan Cabinet Company in Forest Lake, making things out of wood, from ladders to turned bowls.

Perry and Sheila collaborated on several projects. They built the living room shelves, fitted together with pegs that can be disassembled, and the outside door surround. They continue to use his dad’s large machines to build things for the cabin. Sheila considers operation of the chain saw, cutting down dead trees and opening up the view after a big ice storm a few years ago as one of Perry’s biggest contributions.

Five years after they completed the ground floor, they began finishing work on the walk-out lower level.

A small room in the back of the basement is papered with blueprints of the house and their various fabrication projects.

In the downstairs bedroom, Perry designed the wall paneling, incorporating a Lundie herringbone design. Reached by an outside staircase, the “Dragon Room” is a comfortable space for visitors. The impressive dragon-axe-spear headboard served in 2002 as gateway that greeted visitors to the Science Museum of Minnesota’s “Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga” show. A friend who works at the St. Paul-based museum asked if Sheila wanted the gate before it was tossed out. Of course she did.

Since then they’ve added other dragon- and dragonfly-inspired touches inside and outside.

To greet visitors, Sheila designed bright welcoming dragonfly signs which were crafted by master carver Jock Holmen. Sheila finished the signs with 16 coats of special outdoor paint to withstand the elements and designed the wrought-iron dragons, made by Myron Hanson, to support them. A carved Viking dragon looming from the peak of the house is also her handiwork.

×

1 of 4

Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

Sheila Smith

Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

Lupines bring glory to the yard and color by the home’s signpost entry.

×

2 of 4

Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

Sheila Smith

Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

The bedroom features pine-paneled walls and old-fashioned furnishings (except for the distinctive headboard).

×

3 of 4

Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

Sheila Smith

Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

The bed’s Viking-themed headboard was a stage piece.

×

4 of 4

Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

Sheila Smith

Dragonfly House: A Fairytale Getaway Made Real

An open floor plan with ample windows adds an outdoor feeling in the living area.

Thirteen years after it was finished, Sheila and Perry added a raised deck to enhance the space for larger gatherings. A welcoming entrance, the deck incorporates various design elements from Lundie’s cabins into the posts, rails and fence.

“I designed the deck and posts, riffing on the designs of several other Lundie cabins,” she says. “The stiles, the vertical pieces in the railing surrounding the deck, were designed by Perry as a riff on the railing near the front door of Lutsen lodge.”

For their final project, the couple added a rock garden and pond. They sought Prairie Restorations of Cloquet to advise them on what native grasses and wild flowers to use to surround the house. In season, the vista changes constantly as different plants bloom in sequence, wrapping Dragonfly House in fields of solid color.

The rock garden attracts resident snakes, giving the added benefit of field-mouse population control.

From their Twin Cities work, Sheila and Perry travel north to their oasis as often as they can, spending the entire month of August, and sprinkling visits throughout the year.

The cabin is winterized. The extra-thick, insulated panel walls retain well the warmth generated by electric baseboard heaters.

“I think what’s most meaningful about the cabin for me is that it’s a place built partly by my own hand. Something I designed in my imagination and can now walk around in real life,” says Sheila. “I still get a thrill every time I step through the door.”

Beryl Singleton Bissell lives with husband, Bill, in Schroeder, Minnesota. She is author of A View of the Lake and The Scent of God.