The foyer has a stone floor and walls along with what Julie Barrows described as “a giant wooden door that looks like it belongs on a castle.” In the living room, a huge window of leaded glass divides into dozens of small panes. There are four staircases, two of them spiral, two built around tree trunks that retain their rough surface. There’s even a door with a big glass panel that has a tree molded into it.

What the Barrows didn’t know when they first toured the house was its original owners. The couple were world-renowned translators of the works of Søren Kierkegaard, a 19th-century Danish philosopher. He’s often called the father of existentialism, a philosophical movement that emphasizes individual free will and search for meaning.

“My wife and I, full disclosure, weren’t really aware of the home’s history,” Tony said.

Howard and Edna Hong, had met as students at St. Olaf College in Northfield and traveled together to Denmark in the late 1930s. There they learned Danish and translated the Kierkegaard’s works into English. Howard Hong became a professor at St. Olaf, and Edna Hong wrote 12 books, including a memoir.

Many of Edna’s books are in the home and will remain for the next owner, Julie Barrows said. One contains an illustration of a spiral staircase in the home and is “on the dining room table right now,” she said.

The Hongs donated their translations and collections of Kierkegaard’s books, papers, journals and manuscripts to St. Olaf, which became the Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library on the campus. The library became the epicenter of a worldwide network of Kierkegaard scholars, including visiting professors who traveled to St. Olaf and often found lodging at the Hongs’ home.