Photos: Deceptively simple home on Lake Michigan has its own tiered seating theater, historic organ

A recent house listing near Lake Michigan is going viral online over its unique features it seems to hide well from the outside.

The home, at first glance, is your typical three-bedroom midcentury modern ranch house. It’s located on the edge of Lake Michigan in Caledonia, Wisconsin.

The front of the home looks like it could be a small, single-story home. But the back tells a different story — with the home dipping over the side of a hill, hiding a spacious lower level.

What lies beneath the home tells a story so different that it doesn’t even belong in the same genre.

The basement has an intricate home theatre with tiered seating for 50 people and professional lighting. And at the center stage: a large historical organ.

According to the listing agent, Frederick Cape, of Re/Max Newport Elite, the theater is about 30 feet deep, and the basement was built around the organ.

Realtor.com said the organ is the biggest Wurlitzer pipe organ ever built, with five keyboards and four organ chambers.

The home theater was created by Fred Hermes, who bought Detroit’s Michigan Theatre organ in 1955. He dismantled it, then rebuilt it at the property.

Hermes, according to Realtor.com, was an organ enthusiast who transformed the Wisconsin home and called the basement the “Basement Bijou.”

The rest of the home looks like a typical single-family home, but with another organ and a piano in the living room, because why not?

Cape believes this home would be best suited for “an organ society or just someone who loves music.”

The home was listed for sale at $1 million on Nov. 5, 2025.

To see more photos of the home, click here.