A Case for Waters as Architect

I’d often wondered about the William Ellsworth house, who was Mr. Ellsworth and did William Waters design the place.  My research did not reveal any concrete proof of Mr. Waters involvement with the house, so lacking any written confirmation I compared the building to others I knew to have come from architect Waters’ drawing board. 

The Ellsworth house is indeed a Victorian House, but it doesn’t fit into a category, such as Italianate or Queen Anne.  I looked at houses drafted by Waters in the mid 1870’s and the many displayed features found on the Ellsworth residence.  The James G. Clark house which once stood on Washing Avenue exhibited some of the same details as the Ellsworth dwelling, i.e.; vertical siding in the gables, peeked top windows, steeply pitched roof and ornate gable and fascia brackets.  These similarities reinforced my belief that Mr. Waters was the architect of William T. Ellsworth’s magnificent house.

In my research I learned something about Mr. Ellsworth.  He was born in 1836 at Morristown, New York which is situated on the St. Lawrence river.  He grew up there and attended two years at Ogdensburg College when at age nineteen he made his way by boat to Chicago, then on to Milwaukee and finally to Sheboygan.  From Sheboygan he walked to Fond Du Lac and from there on foot to Oshkosh, arriving in the city in 1845.  Mr. Ellsworth had several jobs, such as surveying for a railroad and working in the woods for Ripley and Mead.  By age 21 he took a job working for Philetus Sawyer and in 1868 married Miss Verna Sturtevant the sister of Mr. Sawyer’s wife.  The 1870 city directory listed the Ellsworth’s as residing at number 23 Main Street in Algoma.  A change of address occurred by 1879 with a listing in the directory of the corner of Congress and Algoma.

  When Philetus Sawyer became a senator, Ellsworth went to Washington as well and served as the senator’s secretary.  After his service to the Senator, Mr. Ellsworth returned to Oshkosh where he died in 1920, he is buried in Riverside Cemetery next to the Sawyer family mausoleum.        

Of Things That Might Have Been

In the pages of the collection of drawings gathered by William Waters Jr. there were several sketches that seem to be for the same house, a large Stick Style mansion with an imposing central belvedere and ornate woodwork details. The Stick Styles' popularity was from 1860 to 1890 and was more prevalent in the east than in the mid-west, still there are some examples in Wisconsin.  Mr. Waters didn't work extensively in this style but these sketches represent conformation of his mastery of the form. 

It would seem this house was never built but perhaps they were preliminary drawings meant to encourage ideas.  I gave some thought to what houses this sketches may have been for and could think of only one, the residence of William Ellsworth.  The Ellsworth place stood on the corner of Algoma and Congress Streets, just across the street from Edgar Sawyer.  Indeed Mr. Ellsworth worked for the Sawyer Manufacturing Company.  Alas the Ellsworth home was demolished many years ago.

A comparison the the two buildings show some great similarities, enough so that I wondered if Mr. Waters had designed the Ellsworth residence.