Mac Kinnon's Menasha Mansion

D. T. H. Mac Kinnon was a capitalist, entrepreneur and inventor.  Among his business ventures were a pulley factory, excelsior mill for which he invented a more efficient knife and paper mills.  Duncan was born in 1852 in England, the son of Capt. Lauchlan Mac Kinnon of the Royal Navy.  Captain Mac Kinnon met former Wisconsin territorial  governor, James Doty in 1849 while in Washington D. C. and traveled with him to Menasha. The captain loaned Doty money with the governor's land holdings as security.  The upshot of it all this was the governor defaulted and Mac Kinnon acquired land in Menasha.  In time the captains sons Falkland and Duncan came to this county and were managing things in Wisconsin.   Falkland moved on to Wausau and then Wisconsin Rapids and Duncan made his fortune in Menasha.  

By 1898 Mr. Mac Kinnon wanted a fine home.  Like many other wealthy Menashans  he sought the services of William Waters to be his architect.  But unlike others, Mr. Mac Kinnon didn't build his house on East Forest Avenue in Neenah, instead he chose the corner of First and Milwaukee Streets just north of the business district.  Architect Waters designed a massive twenty four room Queen Anne Style house with large bay windows, irregular fenestration and high roof with many dormers. When finished in 1899 there were  front and back parlors, music room, dining room, bath and kitchen on the first floor.  On the second floor were seven bedrooms, sewing room and three bathrooms, the third floor was a ballroom.   It was a late Queen Anne Style and had it been constructed of stone it may have looked like a French chateau.  It must have been truly magnificent when new but like so many large, grand houses it was costly to maintain.  It was converted to The Sunset Haven Nursing home, fire escapes where added and it was clad with aluminum siding which altered it's once grand appearance to shabby.

One Mystery Solved

Many years ago my son, then four years old and I drove from Waukesha to Oshkosh to keep an appointment I'd made with the archivist of the Oshkosh Public Museum to view the file on William Waters. Once there, Tommy occupied himself with some toys and I donned a pair of white cotton gloves and perused the contents of the Waters' file. Among the materials were some black, photo cover pages as if from a disassembled album.  Most of the buildings pictured there were familiar to me but some were not.  I arraigned with the archivist, Mr. Scott Cross for copies of the mystery buildings and since that time I've searched for their identity, with some success.  Recently I conducted an online search and was directed to The Old Third Ward Association, in Appleton.  There were pictured there, many houses designed by architect Waters familiar to me but one address was not.  I closely examined the image and read the paragraph about the house.  I recognized it as one the last buildings I had yet to identify.

It was the home of George Gerry an Appleton lumber dealer.  Mr. Gerry was born in Canada in 1840 and was the owner of Gerry Lumber.  In 1882 he commissioned William Waters to design his dwelling.  It was situated on a corner and  fronted on Cherry St. which later became Memorial Dr.  The front door was on a diminutive front porch with large ornately turned posts with a window over it on the second floor.  To the left, around the corner was another entrance, perhaps to an office and even further along the side of the house was one more door.  To the right of the front door were two windows and two windows above with a set of small twin windows in the gable.   On the right side of the house was a large bay window.  The interior walls were frescoes done by J. Frank Waldo who often worked with Mr. Waters, based on that connection the Third Ward Association correctly concluded that William Waters was the architect.  The house was moved about one hundred feet east from its' original location in order to make way for a row of multiple family houses.  What was once the front of the house became the side of the house, the front porch was removed and the door covered over.  Gone too was the "office door" and what had been a side entrance was made to be the front door, other alteration occurred as well. The barn at the back of the house was converted into a dwelling.  

Buildings of the North, Part Three

Ashland Wisconsin in the late nineteenth century was a robust and growing city with many large impressive buildings.  Structures of three or four stories were not uncommon, one such building was the Bristol Block.  Built in 1894 by business partners E. J. Born and T. J. Bristol the building bore Mr. Bristol's name and housed the jewelry store of Mr. Born, of which Mr. Bristol held a half interest.  A full description of the store and building was published in the Ashland Daily Press - Annual Edition,1894 and was said to have some of the finest offices in the city, on the second floor.  The article failed to mention the architect and the sole proof of William Waters' authorship of the plans was a photograph of the structure found in a portfolio of his work at the archives of the Oshkosh Public Museum.  Mr. Waters had designed many buildings using the lime stone quarried in Oshkosh and the brown stone of the north was little different.

The Bristol Block like most of the stone structures in Ashland was built of that native brown stone, quarried near by.  It was four stories high, perhaps one the tallest commercial building to come from Waters' drawing board and had two retail spaces on the ground floor, separated by a stairway to the upper floors.  The second floor at center had a set of double windows and balcony and above that another balcony and a set of triplet windows on the third level, these were flanked by bay windows.  The top floor was perhaps a work shop and had two sets of nine small windows on either side of an arch at the center divided into thirteen windows.  A variety of businesses had occupied the building's first floor: a jewelry store. haberdashery and a drug store.  Lawyers, a seamstress and the telephone exchange had all found a place on the upper floors.  Some years ago a bank purchased the building, refurbishing the office space to their use and as rental space.

P. S.   Mr. Waters was also cited as the architect of two schools in Ashland.  It is unclear which two were of his design but they were likely the two commissioned by the school board in 1872 and built that same year. All other Ashland schools of the nineteenth century were the work of Henry Wildhagen or the firm of Conover and Porter.

Buildings of the North, Part Two

Price County Wisconsin was created by the Wisconsin State Legislature in March of 1879.  The county was formed from portion of Lincoln and Chippewa counties and named for T. W. Price, president of the state senate and logging magnate in that part of the state. With the construction of railroads population centers where no longer bound to a close proximity to waterways such as a river to transport goods and materials. The community of Phillips was one such village, a fast growing town, it was selected as the county seat.   Mr. Waters was credited with the design of three building in that city: the courthouse, school and the Citizens' Bank.  In the April 3, 1880 edition of the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern there appeared a notice of solicitation for sealed bids for the construction of a courthouse at Phillips, the structure was finished that years at a cost of $10,000.  The subject of the courthouse was covered in a post dated 8/8/2012.  

In addition to the courthouse, it was cited in The Commemorative Biographical Record of the Fox River Valley, that Waters also designed a school and bank. Both where most likely built of wood, as that was the most abundant building material on hard.  The school built in 1884 was undoubtedly the work of architect Waters and served until 1891 when it was demolish and replaced by a larger building.  As for the bank, local historians find no record of the Citizens' Bank at all.  Very little survived the fire of 1894 including photographs of the city before the conflagration and those that do, don't show the buildings in question. There are no written descriptions of the buildings from which one might extrapolate a drawing.  Perhaps one day images will be found but until then their appearance will remain a mystery.       

Buildings of the North, Part One

William Waters' architectural reach extended further from Oshkosh as his fame and influence grew and by the 1880's he'd worked past the Fox River valley and into the north woods of Wisconsin.   A lengthy biography published in "Beer's Commemorative Record of the Fox River Valley, lists many of his accomplishment; a bank at Merrill, a courthouse, school and bank in Phillips and two schools in Ashland. The up building of the states' north was providing many opportunities for the Oshkosh architect.  

As reported in the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern of May 19, 1881, under the headline "Architect Waters", was an article enumerating the many jobs he was working on. (Sic) ...At Merrill (formerly Jenny) Lincoln County, he has a bank and two stores, two stories, for Ross, McCord and Company, $10,000...  Mr. McCord had many business interests in Jenny, cum Merrill, a lumber mill among them.  It would seem he partnered with Mr. Ross and in 1881 decided to build a business block and open a bank on the corner of East Main and Poplar Streets.  The brick structure was two stories high with space for four businesses, the bank occupied the corner space with offices on the second floor. It exhibited many of the Waters' hallmarks, along the top was a brick cornice not unlike those seen on other of his commercial structures.  There were indentations on either side of the windows making them appear larger and a chamfered corner which held the front door to the bank with a large window on the second floor.  Above the window was a set of diminutive triplet windows topped by a pediment inscribed with the construction date.

 Over the years the building served many commercial establishments, for much of its' history it was Peterman, Brothers Department Store and later a hardware store.  Only a few change were made since construction: the pediments were removed from the building top and smaller window were installed.

Marshfield Rebuilds Part 2

Following the devastating fire of 1887 the city of Marshfield ordained that commercial structures be constructed of brick.   The massive fire had cleared Central Avenue and there was ample work for architects and masons.  Less than a month after the blaze, Mr. William Upham was in Oshkosh at the office of architect Waters, reviewing drawing for the proposed new business block.  The building was to be built on the corner of Central Avenue and 2nd Street, several block south of Uphams' mill and factory and occupy the same side of the street  as the new Tremont Hotel and First National Bank.  The edifice was two stories high with three store fronts and offices on the second floor.  It was built of cream colored brick with bands of dark brick for visual interest.  Along the top was a cornice and frieze of intricate brick work and at one  end the cornice extended well above the rest of the building.  

Within a year an addition was erected adjacent to the hotel.  It is not clear if Mr. Waters designed the enlargement but the architectural motifs carry from the original structure to the addition, making him the likely architect.  Atop the corner of the annex is a pediment much like that of the Waters designed bank just to the other side of the hotel.

There were other buildings along Central Avenue which may also have been the work of William Waters, surly he would have taken the opportunity to seek other commissions in the burned out city.   Pictured here is a building from the 1880's which still stands on Central Avenue, many of the older building have been replaced.  The store exhibits many of the attributes associated with a design by architect Waters; the cornice, the accents around the windows and the small pediment at the center of the building, most notably.   Mr. Waters was again in Marshfield in 1889 when the city built a new High School of his design, see the post of December 10, 2012.

Marshfield Rebuilt

In the late 1880's Marshfield Wisconsin was a fast growing lumber manufacturing center.  Not situated on a river, its' growth was helped by the construction of a railroad.  In 1878 William Upham and his brother built a large mill and factories on the northwest side of town, by 1885 the city was home to 2000 residence.  The spring of 1887 had been very dry and on June 27th a spark from a freight train passing Uphams' mill ignited saw dust near a stack of lumber.  The strong wind pushed the flames south, toward town and when it was all over more than two hundred structures were destroyed  but there was no loss of life.   Reconstruction began almost at once for there appeared a notice in the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern of July 14, that Mr. Upham was in town to visit the office of architect Waters and review plans for a new commercial building.  Mr. Uphams' building was but one of the building designed by Waters in the rebuilding of Marshfield.  Two notable Waters structures, the First National Bank and the Tremont Hotel were linked for there entire existence.  Both were built the same year next to one another on Central Ave.  It's unclear if William Upham had  a financial interest in the hotel but he was president of the bank and the buildings were complimentary in style   

In the Marshfield Times of December 30, 1887 there was an extensive description of the new hotel, it was built on the site for the previous Tremont Hotel and measured 51' x 108', three stories high.  The first floor comprised the office, parlor, dining room, kitchen, pantry, laundry, two large sample rooms, a bath room and three family rooms.  The office, parlor and dining room were finished with oak.  On the second floor was a ladies parlor and 18 bedrooms as well as 12 rooms for the servants and on the third floor were 13 sleeping apartments.  The rooms, halls and stairs were all carpeted.  The furniture through out was manufactured of oak and ask by Banderod and Chase of Oshkosh.  Oshkosh cream brick from Cook and Brown was used in its' construction, which was done by E. E. Stevens and C. R. Meyer, also of Oshkosh. Both building were of the Queen Anne Style.

In about 1889 Mr. Charles E. Blodgett came to Marshfield and took over the Tremont Hotel, renaming it the Blodgett Hotel.  Mr. Blodgett was a savvy and enthusiastic business man, able to to communicate his vision to others.  He continuously improved the hotel and about 1910 expanded it by adding a third story to the bank building and connecting it to the hotel.  It is unclear if William Waters was the architect of this remodeling but it may well have been, for great pains were taken to make a seamless addition.  At sometime, even before the annex was built the hotel and bank got a coat of red paint.  The windows of the hotel were outfitted with red and white striped awnings, which made for a striking appearance.    The hotel no longer stands on Central Avenue, having been replaced by modern commercial buildings.

P. S. This post will conclude the series on the hotels designed by Mr. Waters.