Mr. Waters' Barns

William Waters was asked occasionally by clients  to design a barn/stable or carriage house.  This was not a great body of work as it was only the wealthy who could afford to have and maintain horses and a building to house them, few if any of these structures survive to this day.   One of the last to be demolished was the barn built for Mr. Charles Clark of Neenah.  Waters had supplied plans for Mr. Clark's house built in the mid 1870's and a stable for the horses.

The structure fronted on Doty Street just south of Wisconsin Avenue and was a large building which housed horses, vehicles and ancillary equipment.  I found a sketch of a barn among the drawings collected by Willie Waters Jr. and recognized as the Clark stable. 

Over the years alteration were made to the building as it's purpose changed; the doors were enlarged, some replaced with widows and the copula removed.  The building was razed late in the twentieth century. 

Architect Waters designed other barns as well as shown by two drawings from the assemblage of young master Waters.  The barns pictured in the sketches were to be built of brick and intended for an urban setting.  A barn resembling the first drawing was built for Ossian Cook for his house on Church Street.