The Playhouse
For kids visiting Manninen’s Cabins, the Playhouse is a popular attraction.
Originally built in 1959 for my sister, the Playhouse sat behind our home at Otter Lake for many decades. Dad moved it closer to the cabins in the late 1980s where it has sat ever since.
The nondescript little building is perfect for kids and was built with such love and care. It has a screened window on one side and even a little screened notch above the door to add some cross ventilation. Little shutters are hung around the door and window. The inside has several chairs, a built-in shelf, and full chalkboard, perfect for drawing and impromptu games of tic-tac-toe or hangman.
Lots of kids choose to eat their lunch in the Playhouse or just to hide out away from the adults for a little while. Liked equally by boys and girls, it’s part fort, part clubhouse, part dollhouse, and part kid-size cabin.
The playhouse has been repainted and reroofed several times, most recently in 2019. If you look carefully around the door frame you can see the previous colors of bright white, eggshell blue and rusty red.
It makes me smile when I think about all the tykes (including me and my friends and cousins) who have enjoyed this place through the years. I remember spending hours in the Playhouse just reading, having tea parties with my friends, hiding out, and just being a kid. I felt safe there and it was my own little space away from the worries of the world.
Images courtesy Manninen archives, Elaine Sterrett Isely.