The Adolf and Helga Gundersen Cottage is a fine and unique example of a Scandinavian-inspired, rustic Arts and Crafts style summer home constructed in 1918. The cottage features vertical log walls, leaded glass windows, half-timbering, massive stone chimneys, decorative arched openings, wood brackets, rafter ends, and scalloped bargeboards, in addition to an interior with heavy beams, wood carvings, and Nordic designs.

The unusual design, similar to vernacular Scandinavian summer cottages, was produced by the notable Prairie Style architects Otto Merman and Percy Bentley of La Crosse. The cottage design also carries traits of the Arts and Crafts style, and possibly some formal similarities to Prairie style houses, while exhibiting the log construction, open beam interior, and Nordic designs associated with Scandinavian building traditions.

Adolf Gundersen was a prominent Norwegian medical doctor who immigrated to La Crosse in 1891. Gundersen and his family played a large role in the establishment of the Gundersen Clinic – the Lutheran Hospital, and the advancement of modern medical practices and standards in La Crosse in the early-twentieth century. Dr. Gundersen was honored with the knighthood of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olaf in 1926, an honorary member of the Medical Society of Oslo, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, in the Scandinavian Surgical Society, an honorary member of the Christiania Surgical Society, a regent of the University of Wisconsin, and was inducted into the Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame in 2013.

In 1918, Adolf and Helga Gundersen constructed a summer cottage. The cottage was located at the northern end of Barron Island, in what was then a remote marshland surrounded by the Mississippi River, but still near the City of La Crosse. Now within the City of La Crosse, the cottage and its surroundings remain largely unchanged since its construction.

This property is private. Please respect the rights and privacy of the owners.