In 2005, Isaiah Henry Robertson, a Jamaican-born carpenter and religious Christian dwelling in Niagara Falls, New York, started remodeling his modest home into what he believed was a preparation website for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Satisfied that God had informed him the world would finish in 2014, Robertson spent years overlaying almost each floor of his dwelling, in and out, with intricate, brightly painted wood non secular artwork. After his demise in 2020, the property was acquired by the Kohler Basis, gifted to the Niagara Falls Nationwide Heritage Space, and preserved as a group landmark. Right now, guests can discover ‘Prophet Isaiah’s Second Coming Home’ on guided excursions that spotlight his faith-driven artistry and legacy. Learn on to be taught extra about this uncommon incident, as described on the Niagara Falls Nationwide Heritage Space’s official pages about the home and its excursions.A carpenter guided by religionIsaiah Robertson was simply twelve when his mom informed him she had obtained a imaginative and prescient that he would do nice issues. Raised in Jamaica, he was taught to wish for salvation and, following what he noticed as Jesus’ instance, turned a carpenter. He later claimed to have constructed his first home with out formal coaching, relying as an alternative on religion and sensible ability.At 24, Robertson moved to Canada and continued working in building. In 2004, he relocated to Niagara Falls, New York, the place he renovated and resold homes. His church, Mount Erie Baptist Church, employed him to sheetrock and panel partitions. Nonetheless, as an alternative of ordinary supplies, he used pure oak and lined the partitions and cathedral ceiling with intricate, interlocking wooden cutouts depicting non secular imagery. He mentioned God instructed him to make use of oak, and he bought the wooden along with his complete life financial savings.Making ready for the tip of the worldIn 2005, Robertson mentioned God spoke to him once more with a brand new directive: rework his own residence as a result of the tip of the world was coming in 2014. He started by constructing a 25-foot kaleidoscopic cross close to the driveway, embellished with lots of of multichrome wood armatures. On the entrance of the home, he mounted a 300-pound boulder from Three Sisters Island in Niagara Falls State Park, the place he believed the Rapture would happen.Robertson’s imaginative and prescient was each private and public. He believed that eternally damned souls flying previous his home would see the cross and have one final probability to repent and be saved. Roadside America has described the home as “a spectacular piece of non secular eye sweet,” lined in hundreds of bright-hued, hand-carved surfaces that includes multi-denominational non secular symbols comparable to doves, trumpets, crescents, multi-pointed stars and “wheels inside wheels.” Robertson usually mentioned that God guided his arms as he labored, and he even interpreted an unintended brush stroke close to the entrance door as a picture of the Virgin Mary.Contained in the non secular sanctuaryInside, Robertson created a devoted prayer room, overlaying the flooring with candles and symbolic purple bead patterns that he mentioned represented “the trail to Salvation.” Each obtainable floor, be it partitions, ceilings, doorways and trim, was adorned with hand-carved and painted motifs drawn from Christian iconography and his personal non secular visions.The result’s much less a traditional home and extra a three-dimensional devotional art work, a bodily expression of Robertson’s perception that Niagara Falls, one of many pure wonders of the world, could be the location of Christ’s return. For him, the home was not only a dwelling however a non secular sanctuary and a signpost for the devoted and the misplaced alike.From personal imaginative and prescient to public landmarkIsaiah Robertson handed away in January 2020 on the age of 72. Pals and neighbours remembered him as heat and welcoming, in addition to a gifted woodworker and artist whose religion formed each side of his life.In 2021, the Kohler Basis bought the home and gifted it to the Niagara Falls Nationwide Heritage Space (NFNHA). The organisation started the work of preserving the construction and restoring its artwork, with the long-term purpose of reworking the location right into a group house that tells Robertson’s story and conjures up extra group artwork by way of occasions and applications.Visiting the home right this momentRight now, the property is named Prophet Isaiah’s Second Coming Home and is open to the general public by way of guided excursions run by the Niagara Falls Nationwide Heritage Space. The 90-minute tour takes guests by way of each the inside and exterior of the home, together with areas not seen from the road, providing a close-up have a look at Robertson’s evolving masterpiece.Guides focus on intuitive artwork, non secular symbolism, the challenges of preserving outside people artwork, and what it means to depart a non secular and artistic legacy within the coronary heart of a group. Excursions are priced at $15 for adults, with free admission for kids underneath 18, and meet at 1308 Ontario Ave. in Niagara Falls, New York.For a lot of guests, the home is greater than a curiosity; it’s a testomony to 1 man’s unwavering perception that his artwork may serve the next objective. In a metropolis identified for its pure spectacle, Prophet Isaiah’s dwelling provides one other layer of surprise—a human-made shrine born of religion, craftsmanship and a imaginative and prescient of the tip occasions that by no means got here, but left one thing enduring behind.
