Welcome to the home of the Birdhouse.
An unusual home for an unusual, if modest, bird.
We formed The Friends of Arthur J. E. Wren to help build this birdhouse, for our eponymous friend. Arthur needed a place to retire and focus on his writing, but that's a longer story. The important bit we've succeeded and we'd like to share it with you.
This house, his house, is very cozy, but perhaps larger than you might expect for a wren, especially a professor; an "ornithomorphized" Edwardian cottage if you will. It stands just over fourteen feet tall, eight feet wide, and ten feet deep. It is a traditionally framed wooded structure made chiefly of pine and common wood with some key members of birch, red oak, and redwood. The trim and wainscot is made of douglas fir, as you'd expect from construction of the early 20th century--though I'm afraid it isn't all quite square. The round white oak door is fitted with brass and inset with stained glass. He has furnished his home with all the nesting essentials, including his library, pictures, perch, stove, tea service, and a pantry of fragrant seeds and fresh bugs. As Arthur likes to take tea with friends and appreciates a quiet space to read, he hopes you'll find his home suitable for sharing these and other activities with friends.
His housewarming was July 2014 during the Priceless Festival at Belden Town, California. Later that year, he briefly opened his home in Mosswood Park adjunct to Figment in Oakland. He again entertained and shared hot tea on Treasure Island in October of 2015. He made an outing to Woodard Reservoir, California in September of 2016. Arthur briefly vacationed on the ice at Art Shanty Projects in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in February 2017. Having thoroughly enjoyed his time on the ice, Arthur decided to stay on entertaining for the entire summer in the UMN Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen, Minnesota
Arthur has no idea where he will take his home next. However, his dislike of arid, alkali places will keep him far from any deserts.