Oshkosh Residences Part 3

To the west of Main Street was another popular neighborhood not only for housing but for religious structures. The city's High School, regarded by many as the finest in the state occupied a lot on Algoma Street. Algoma and Church Streets as well as Jackson Street were line with capacious dwellings and elegant churches. Six and a half to the churches in this part of town were the work of William Waters as well as many of the houses. The area was home to merchants, manufactures and other highly respect sorts.

On the corner of Algoma and Light Streets was the residence of J. H. Wall. Built in 1905 using plans drawn by Waters, the home is an early Tudor style and is discussed in a previous posting. J. H. and his brother Tom were in the lumber business in the firm of Wall- Spalding, lumber wholesalers with offices located in the Webster Block. The home is still there but has been re-purposed with a large addition. The original structure remains intact and the addition is harmonious with it.

Also on Algoma Street just to the west of Jackson Street once stood the residence of S. M. Hay, hardware merchant and bank president. William Waters was asked by Mr. Hay to design a brick Italianate mansion. It was built in 1873 and is described in another post as well. The neighborhood experienced many change as the twentieth century progressed, there was the expansion of the High School and the relocation of the Court House. Filling station and super markets replaced many of the fine old homes. The Hay residence survived until the late 1940s when it was razed in favor of a parking lot.

Church Street was also a prestigious thoroughfare on which to build. Not totally cluttered with houses of worship as it's name would imply there was plenty of real estate of the dwellings of the well to do. In 1904 Carl Wickert, a confectioner with a shop on Main Street commissioned Mr. Waters to design a house of the latest style. It was a foursquare or what might have been called at the time "The Chicago Style". The house is much as it was when it was built, two stories the first of lime stone block and large front porch the second story clad in stucco, topped by a dormer and hipped roof.

Down the block and around the corner on Jackson Street was the home E. S. Wilson. Newly built in 1907, it too was of the most current style and a suitable residence for the proprietor of The Wilson Music Company. As with the Wickert house it was a large foursquare with the first floor of lime stone block and the second floor of stucco. The building also is adorned with a full front porch, an impressive dormer and bell cast hipped roof.

Mr. Charles Montgomery chose to build a new house in 1890. The home was on Jackson Street just north of New York Avenue and William Waters was the architect. Mr. Montgomery was for a time the superintendent of the Oshkosh Street Railway but is later listed as a merchant, of what is not reviled. What ever he did for a living it afforded him the ability to build a grand Queen Anne Style dwelling with a broad porch and second floor balcony. The house remains much as it was when built and has been well maintained.

Not far from the intersection of Jackson and Irving Streets was the home of Fred Burgess. Mr. Burgess had been deputy sheriff and jailer for the county. He had moved round that neighborhood every few years, for about a decade. In 1886 he became sheriff and lived for a time in the county court house. Shortly after that Mr. Waters was commissioned to plan a fine Queen Anne Style dwelling. The house still stands but the years have not been kind and the place looks shabby.