After the Great Fire, Part Three

By July of 1875 work had commenced on the reconstruction of burned out district.  The Oshkosh newspapers as a matter of civic pride were filled with articles on the rapid rebuilding.  One such document was published in the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern of July 15, 1875 and was a  listing of all the new building by architect.  Mr. Waters was credited with some twenty structures but there were more as some were added after the paper went to press.

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The subject of this post will the building on both sides of Main Street, between Otter and Waugoo Street.  H. B. Jackson commissioned Mr. Waters for a structure, one half to be used as a bank and the other half to be hardware store.  The building used the template so successfully employed by Waters on many commercial structures. It measured 40' x 60' the cost was $6,000 and as of this writing the building still stands.   

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The McCorison store is one of the building that didn't make the list in the newspaper. However it is clear that the edifice is the work of architect Waters by the central pediment and brickwork at the cornice and about the windows. McCorison was a purveyor of carpet, upholstery, furniture and the large store, 46' x 80' would have provided ample room for carpet stock. The building was razed to make way for new construction sometime in the 1920's

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Next to McCorison furniture store was the McKenzie Block.  The July 15th article states that R. McKenzie was to erect a small building, only twenty four feet wide and house two stores.  It appears that Mr Waters combined work for two clients into one structure, much as he did with Griffin, Ernst and Hubbard in the block just to the south.  Its is odd that there is no R. McKenzie listed in the 1876 city directory.  Newspapers of that time often made mistakes with initials.  This building too fell to the wrenching ball, to accommodate new construction.      

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The building put up by Herbert Bammessell, a manufacturer and dealer of cigars was next in line and it was a beauty, with intricate brick work and imposing central pediment.  The building cost $7,000, was two stories high, measuring 46' x 80' and housed three stores as well as Mr. Bammessell on the second floor.  

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Bigger & Clark Bros. built an elegant new store just across the street from Mr. Bammessell.  R. L. Bigger was a long time business man in town, once having partnered with William Hill who later built his own store two blocks north of Main and High Streets.  Both establishment vied to be the most prestigious dry goods store in town.  The new store certainly was elaborately impressive with two double door entrances, larger widows and high central pediment.  It is unclear to me if the building was razed or if it was expanded and remodeled.  I feel a portion of this structure may still exists as part of what would become S. Heymann's, cum The Boston Store.      

After the Great Fire, Part Two

Back on September 5, 2010, I posted an article on the great fire of Oshkosh and closed it with promise that other entries on that subject would soon follow.  Well that never happened and I intend to change that now.  There are some reader whom I'm sure will go back that 2010 posting as a matter of review and that would be a fine thing.  I will also provide a review and it goes like, this;  On April 28, 1875 a frighten employ of the Morgan Door company rushed into the office and announced that a stack of lumber was burning.  The day was dry and the wind was fierce.  The blaze pushed it's way east and the thrice burned and rebuilt business district lay in the path.  The city had been construed largely of wood and fire fighting was not the modern science of today.  ...Well you get the picture, pretty much a total lose, but it was early in the year and plans got started almost at once.   

Mr. Waters firm got commissions on 23 new building along burned out Main Street: Two hotels, a post office, two bank, an opera hall and eighteen business block; all to be built of brick.  Plans were being prepared at an unheard of pace and it would have been difficult to achieve a different look for every building. 

I've decide to look at Mr. Waters post conflagration works by starting at the south end of Main Street and working north.  One should understand that the lower end of Main Street was the unfashionable end sometimes called the rockery.  Here was a chance to change the complexion of the benighted end of the street.  Good, attractive, solid brick building would help the matter. Three men held much of the real estate along the east side of Main Street between Ceape Street and Otter: C. Griffin. C. Ernest and E. Hubbard. Mr. Waters knew it would be to expensive to design individual building for each client so he repeated the same design for the nearly the whole block, to a pleasing effect.  

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The buildings used the template very popular with architect Waters.  One building consisted of two stores, between each store was a stair way leading to the second floor.  The front elevation was much the same for any building using this formula; the room above each store had two or perhaps a triple window, center above the stairway was a diminutive window.  It was a design that Mr. Waters used over and over during the reconstruction of Oshkosh.

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Across the street Mr. Waters found work with P. V. Wright and the Jones Bros.  The clients had adjacent lots and nearly identical building.  The structures were based on same template as the buildings on the other side of the street, however the Wright building had seven windows on the second floor and Jones had but five.
                                         

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The next post will look at the buildings from Otter Street to Waugoo Street.

Appleton Residences Part Three

There are a few Appleton homes I neglected to include, so here they are.  First on the list is the home of David Smith.  Mr. Smith was one of the big names in early Appleton banking.  He was born in 1826 in Torthorwald, Scotland and his family followed his father to Quebec in 1844.  Young Mr. Smith then moved to Cincinnati, took a job with a wholesale grocer and met and married Agnes Thom.  From there the Smiths moved to Milwaukee where David was employed as a bookkeeper and met Robert Shiells.  Not long after that he and Shiells move to Neenah and establish a bank there.  Smith wished strike out on his own and moved to Appleton to open a bank in that city.  The bank would become the First National Bank but Mr. Smith didn't care for the restrictions placed him by the national banking laws and withdrew.  He later started the Manufactures Bank which eventually merged with the Commercial Bank.   

The Smiths had seven children and needed a suitable house to raise them in.  Mr. Smith turned to William Waters to provide the plans for there dwelling.  The house was in the Second Empire Style, an unusual style for Waters to work with.  The plan is very similar to that of the E. C. Goff residence also of Appleton but that the Goff place is Italianate in style.  The house was situated on a fashionable street near City Park.  David Smith died at age fifty, his widow and several children lived in the house for many years thereafter.

William Henry Harrison Stowell had life crowded with incident.  He was born in Windsor, Vermont, educated in Boston, took up mercantile pursuits after graduating, then moved to Virginia in 1865 to become a tax collector.  He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1870 and served until 1877.  In 1880 he went west to Appleton were he got into the the paper industry.  By 1886 he had moved on to Duluth Minnesota with interests in paper making, steel production and banking.  In 1914 he moved again this time to Amherst Massachusetts, were he died in 1922.  His time in Appleton may have been brief but it was long enough for him to commission a house by William Waters.  The building was never constructed. 

Rush Winslow was born November 7, 1843 in Koshkonong, Wisconsin and received his early education in Fort Atkinson.  He tried a carrier in business but decided to study medicine in the office of his father.  Young Winslow went on to school in Chicago and New York and received his MD in 1870 from Bellevue College, New York.  In 1873 he settled in Appleton and was recognized as one of the leading professional men of the city.  He also believed in public service and was first elected alderman and then four teams as mayor starting in 1887.  He too secured the services of William Water to plan his abode.  The house was  Queen Anne Style with porch at the front and side of the building and sat on a corner lot one block south of College Avenue and just across the street from the Methodist church. 

A short notice in an Appleton Post of 3/14 1889 reported that stones for the foundation had arrive at the site of C. S. Little's new house on Park Street.  It also states that Wm. Waters prepared the plans for the very cozy and artistic house which was to cost between three and four thousand dollars  Little's house still stands on Park Avenue in Appleton, not far from City Park.  It has been altered from the original but the Waters design is unmistakable.  A simple Queen Anne, it is based on a cottage design Mr. Waters used to great success for many years.    

The last house on the list is the rectory built for All Saints Episcopal Church.  That church had had a long history in the city of Appleton, first as Grace Episcopal and later as All Saints.  By 1891 the church was getting settled after having moved the church building the site at the corner of Drew and College.  A proper rectory was called for and the church sought out Mr. Waters to make the plans.  The architect delivered a beautiful and well proportioned Queen Anne Style house which was erected on Drew Street just next to the church.  The rectory served the parish until 1959 when it was raised to make way for another building.

Residences in Green Bay & De Pere

William Waters had two residential commissions in the cities of Green Bay and De Pere. The first was the home of banker  and philanthropist Rufus Kellogg.  My research was sketchy at best, there was no comprehensive biography of him to be found, on line.  I do know he was of the Amherst Massachusetts Kellogg's and he was born in 1837 and past away in Green Bay in 1891.      

There was also precious little information on his dwelling; it is mention in an article about architect Waters published in the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern dated June 25, 1891.  The house was in the Stick Style and may  have been designed in the late 1870's or early 1880's.  There was a large wing of the house to the right which looked like the foursquare houses of the turn of the century.  To the left was the front door and small porch and behind it and even future to the left  was tower like portion which may have held the stair case.  This tower was capped by bell cast roof with an iron work finial at it's peak, all the the roof ridges were adorned with iron work.  Just behind the tower was a portion of the house which rose to a third floor gable and in that gable was a double window and small balcony.  In 1908 the house was purchased by the Sister of St. Joesph of Carondelet and became St. Joesph Academy for Girls.  It severed in that capacity until the late 1950's when it was replaced and demolished.    

On North Broadway, along the Fox River in De Pere was the home of E.E. Bolles the owner and operator of a wooden ware mill in that city.  The only reference to this dwelling and William Waters was the Northwestern Weekly article from June of 1891.  The house was an early Queen Style and was designed perhaps around 1881.  It was a large house with many porches and bay windows on the first floor and an abundance of windows on the second floor.  Gables, dormer and towering chimneys crowned the house on the attic level.  At sometime the house was remolded and the Queen Anne details were removed in an effort to update the building.

At Home in Waupaca

Mr. Waters  found residential commissions throughout the state of Wisconsin and Waupaca provided a few. The architects first job in that city was the county courthouse, built in 1881.  Waupaca was growing fast, many people prospered from that growth and many fine dwelling were being erected.  A brief notice in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern  of July 28, 1881 states that the architect had residential commissions in Appleton, Neenah and Waupaca.  

The C. R. Hoffman residence was one the first houses Waters designed in Waupaca.  Charles R. Hoffman was the proprietor of a jewelry store; born in Chicago, he learned his trade at Giles Brothers of that city.  In 1881 he moved to Waupaca and found employment with W. Chady; after a year he bought out Mr. Chady and continued a thriving business.  He hired William Waters to design a suitable dwelling for his family.  The house was a cottage style the architect had used with great success on many other homes.  The main portion the the building had a long slopping roof with a diminutive dormer and to the right was a large gable.  On the side elevation there was a bay window which straddled the first and second floor and accommodated the stair case.        

Next came the home of S. T. Oborn; Oborn was born in Ulysses, Schuyler County, New York in 1849 and moved with his parents to Neenah.  He attended Baldwin University in Berea, Ohio for three years before entering a career in the milling business, first in Neenah, then Chicago and came to Waupaca in 1876, taking  charge of City Mills.  In 1884 Mr. Oborn partnered with R. N. Roberts and built the Crescent Mills one the the largest and best in the region.  At about the same time he commissioned William Waters to prepare plans for a new house.  The structure was of the Queen Anne Style and not unlike the home of A. W. Patten in Appleton.  A transverse plan was employed with a large gable at one end with a porch. Another porch ran along the front of the house from center to the opposite end and near that end on the second floor was a bay which rose to the attic level. At the center of the roof was a large eyebrow window.  The upper floors were covered with shingles and the first floor sided with clapboards.    

A. G. Nelson was born in Warmland, Sweden in June of 1849, came to Waupaca in August of 1871 and began work at the Eagle Planning Mill.  By 1873 in partnership with his brother J.P. and Ole Olson they purchased the C. H. Ritz Planning Mill which was destroyed by fire in 1877 and rebuilt.  Mr. Nelson was an ambitious man, entering the arena of politics he was elected alderman and later to the state assembly.  By the turn of the twentieth century he'd accomplished a great deal and wanted a home that reflected that.  William Waters drew up plans for a large classical style dwelling with an imposing tower at one corner.  A grand front porch dominated the front elevation and above on the second floor was a large bay window.  The house was capped with a bell cast hipped roof with dormers along the front and sides.

Two More in Oshkosh

I was remiss in not mentioning in earlier posts, two Oshkosh residences designed by Mr. Waters.  The first was a dwelling built for William A. Rideout, son of  W. K. Rideout, both prominent men of business, the latter president of the Thompson Carriage Co. and the former a lumberman.  

In 1889 the younger Mr. Rideout selected a lot on what was then called West Algoma Avenue next to the house built by former Governor Coles  Bashford.  For his architect he chose William Waters.  Mr. Waters planned a large Queen Anne Style structure of a simple arrangement.  To the left on the first floor was the front door accessed by a small porch.  Above the porch on the second floor were two small windows, to the right was a bay window which ascended from the ground to the second floor. The projecting gable was supported on either end by large ornate brackets and in the gable was an arch and railing that formed a small balcony with a door from the attic.  Along the right side of the first floor was sizable porch which adjoined a cross portion of the house.  The back part of the house held the dining room, kitchen and pantry and the second floor was given over to bed chambers and a bathroom.  Over the years very few changes were made to the house and it appears much as it did when built.  

The other neglected house was that of  Julius Due, a painter and decorator.  His house on Fulton Avenue was built in 1905, a set of blueprint baring the name William Waters, architect were found in the house during an improvement project.  The dwelling presented as a compact well proportioned Dutch Colonial style cottage with a transverse layout.  An enclosed front porch ran the width of the house, above which rose the roof.  The long slope of the roof was broken by a gambrel roofed dormer at the center which held two windows some small distance apart tied together by a lintel decorated with a festoon.  Above, in the very peak of the gable was a long narrow window.  The first floor was sided with clapboards and the floor above was clad with shingles. There were no external changes, leaving the house as it was in 1905.

Cook's Stable

The pages of "Willie's Book" have reviled yet another surprise and prompted some questions.  The image below is an elevation of an urban barn or stable and there was something quite familiar about it to me.  I went to my archive or what passes for an archive and located an image from the 1880 publication, "History of Winnebago County Wisconsin" by R. J. Harney which showed the grounds and residence of Ossian Cook on Church Street in Oshkosh.  I knew I'd seen the building before and there at the right side of the picture was the stable.  I shared this revelation with others and they agree the barn sketch and the stable in the picture were one and the same.    

The question comes to mind, "If William Waters designed the barn, did he design the house as well?" The design of the house is reminiscent of that of the Oshkosh residence of Wm. Doe built at the corner of Merritt and Mt. Vernon Streets in 1869.  The layout and fenestration are nearly identical, that is not to say this design was exclusive to architect Waters for I've noticed similar structures in other cities. There are other design elements that have a Waters like look about them; the original porch roof resembles those of the Frentz School.  It is true that the Ossian Cook home doesn't appear on any lists of jobs designed by Waters but there were many Waters' jobs that went undocumented.  It could also be that Mr. Waters sold the plans to anyone in need of a stable, for there is in that same publication a picture of Tom Wall's house with the same style barn.         

The insert photo to the left of the picture was taken not long before the house was leveled to make way for a parking lot.  At sometime the house was updated to look more Queen Anne in style; a tower was added, the front door moved to the other side of the house and a large porch erected.  The porch was abbreviated later, perhaps for maintenance reasons but the discolored brick indicates it wrapped around the side of the house.  The next question one must ask is; "Who designed the revisions?"  The changes were sympathetic and harmonious to the original structure.  The tower roof bares a resemblance to that of the Athern Hotel a Waters job from 1895, which may have been about the time of the remodeling.

P.S. I always thought the house looked spooky.