BARTOW, Fla. — Construction started in the 1920s, and the Wonder House in Bartow opened to the public in the 1930s.

“By 1937, it was Florida’s No. 1 tourist attraction, and it was on the back of the tourism catalog,” said Krislin Kreis, the owner and guide of the Wonder House.

And now 99 years in, it’s still a work in progress.

Kreis offers tours of the Bartow home, just as the self-taught architect who built it — Conrad Schuck.

“It was actually called the ‘Crazy House’ before it was called the Wonder House because people didn’t know what he was doing and what he was trying to build,” Kreis said.

Schuck built the house with concrete slabs, adding limestone from the front yard.

And he enlisted his family to add mosaics.

“So Conrad and Mary’s nine kids would be doing a lot of work,” Kreis said.

She still has floor stenciling and some of the mosaic material the children worked with to make the intricate designs on the floors and walls.

Two of the coolest parts of the multistory, 25-room structure are the bedrock-carved sub-basements and a former rain collection/air conditioning system.

“Rainwater would have actually cooled the house about seven degrees,” Kreis said.

She offers insight to Schuck’s inventions throughout the tour.

Schuck never finished the house, and he died in 1971.

Now Kreis is restoring it. She’s been at it for almost a decade.

“Conrad made it almost a true icon of Florida Roadside History, if you will,” Kreis said “And I just want to make Conrad proud.”

Kreis wants people who walk in thinking “weird,” to walk out thinking “wonder.”

The house is a full-time private residence so tours must be reserved online. They cost $25 for adults and $12 for children 10 years old and younger.