Medberry and Bemis

Algoma Boulevard was always a major through fair, lined with businesses, schools, churches and homes. In the early 1890’s, commercial building and churches occupied each side of the street from Main Street to Light Street, there were very few houses.  There was one however at number 58 Algoma, the residence of Samuel Sutton, and machinist.  By 1898 the Sutton residence was gone, replaced by beautiful brick and stone business block for Medberry and Bemis, wholesalers of paper and wooden ware.  The building may have been the work of William Waters for it bore many details used by architect Waters. 

The structure was three stories high with an intricate brick work cornice and pediment.  Six windows ran the width of second and third floors and there were two storefronts on the ground floor.  The windows of the upper floors featured indented corners of the openings, giving the apertures a wider appearance.  Limestone bands and lintels added color and surface texture variety.  The building proved inadequate to the company’s purpose and it was replaced in 1927 with a larger structure.                

A Tenth Avenue Challenge

Early in my study of William Waters I tried to locate as many of his buildings as I could.  Most of his residential work was confined to the north side of Oshkosh with but a few south of the river.  One house on west Tenth Avenue however bore some features which made me think it was the work of architect Waters.  It was a large dwelling with a front gable which held a set of triplet windows.  Below that, on the second floor was a large set of double windows to the left and to the right of those were two small windows.   The first-floor front was covered by an enclosed porch which ran the width of the house and round the left end of the house.  

   

The house was built in 1885 for Hans J. Christenson, an employee of the Central Wisconsin Railroad.  The front porch which dominated the front of the house was not original to the building as shown in a fire insurance map from 1903.  What was there seems to have been a porch at the right front corner of the house and another smaller porch on the east side of the building.   Obscured by the enclosed front, I was unable to discern the fenestration beyond but based on other residences by Mr. Waters I could imagen the unaltered front elevation.