Beginning in 1946, Madeline Buol, née Magdalena Weicker, built a backyard grotto of embellished concrete at her home in Dubuque, Iowa.  Inspired by Father Paul Dobberstein’s Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa, and Father Mathias Wernerus’ Dickeyville Grotto in Dickeyville, Wisconsin, Buol sought their guidance for building methods. In May 1960, she wrote:

“When we moved to our new house (new to us) I thought what a beautiful place to build an outdoor grotto. We moved here in April 1943 and I started to gather rocks, etc. and made the foundation first, about 3 by three feet, just a square. It seems whatever I tried to make would fall down, so I wrote to Father Doberstein [sic], builder of the West Bend Grotto, who told me how to mix the cement, build project on the flat ground, then after five days when the cement was hard, to stand it up.”

Her site represents a rare extant grotto made exclusively by a woman. In addition to the sculptures, she made diagrams of the components, documenting the variety of stones and rocks she had included. The grotto was saved by Kohler Foundation, Inc., after the family’s property was sold. The pieces were stabilized and gifted to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.