The owner, Helen Martins, turned her house and the area around it into a visionary environment, elaborately decorated with ground glass and containing more than 300 concrete sculptures including owls, camels, peacocks, pyramids, and people.

[3] Born on 23 December 1897 in Nieu-Bethesda, she was the youngest of six surviving children of Pieter Jakobus Martins and Hester Catharina Cornelia van der Merwe.

After her father died of stomach cancer in 1945,[6] Helen bricked up the windows, painted his room black, and put a sign reading "The Lion's Den".

[9][5] She is believed to have begun within the house, employing locals Jonas Adams and Piet van der Merwe to make structural alterations, and covering interior surfaces with ground glass.

[11][12] Her partner and lover Johannes Hattingh constructed the first cement animals and build much of the early Owl House bestiary.

[8] In 1964, she was joined in her work by Koos Malgas, who helped her build the sculptures in the outside area called the Camel Yard.

[15] There are also suggestions that Martins got along better with her coloured neighbours (to whom she reportedly sold illegally brewed alcohol) than with members of the austere Dutch Reformed Church.

[6][7] Nonetheless, although she was somewhat reclusive (and became increasingly so as she grew older), Helen Martins invited her neighbours to view her house when decorated for Christmas.

[6] Martin's longtime exposure to the fine crushed glass she used to decorate her walls and ceilings eventually caused her eyesight to start failing.