Neenah High School

The city of Neenah provided many opportunities for Mr. Waters to ply his trade.  He designed all kinds of buildings in that community, several of them were schools.  Prime among them was the First Ward School, which was built in 1879 and served grades one through eight as well as the high school.  By that time styles were in transition from Italianate to Queen Anne and the school showed influences of both.  The building was built of stone from a local quarry and bricks from a Neenah brick yard at a cost of $15,600, with a heating system and school furnishing the price tag came to $25,000. 

The building was longer than it was wide and had wings on each side with entrances.  On the front elevation, a flight of steps carried one to the front doors situated in a small portico with decorative iron work along the roof top.  Above this portal was a set double windows and in the peak of a gable like facade was a set of small windows.  Beyond these apertures arose a great bell tower with louvered openings and intricate if not unusual roof details.  Fenestration on the front elevation consisted of twelve windows; two on either side of the door from foundation to the second floor.  Side walls back to the wings had nine window, three on each level.  The front walls of the wings had entries which echoed the front door with but a single window above. Around the corner the side walls continued back with nine openings and a small window in the gable.  That portion of the building behind the wing was the mirror image of that in front.  A low pitched hip roof with flat top covered the school, with low balustrade running the perimeter at the roof's crest and an eminence chimney issued from the center of the roof.  A new structure, Kimberly High School was built in 1906 but the First Ward School remained as a grade school and was extensively remodeled in the 1930's or 40's, the bell tower was removed, some windows bricked up and large windows added to admit more light.  It was renamed Washington School and was kept in use until 1976 when a new school was built and the old one razed.

Sheboygan Falls High School

As stated in earlier posts William Waters engaged in the practice of architecture soon after arriving in Oshkosh.  It also wasn't' long before he was getting commissions from out of town.  An early such job came from woolen mill owner William Prentice of Sheboygan Falls.  The Sheboygan County News of March 4, 1870 reported that Mr. Prentice was gathering materials for his new dwelling as designed by Architect Waters of Oshkosh.  Surly on a visit to that city Waters must have secured the contract for the new high school to be built, for an announcement in the Winnebago County Press of  August 20,1870 credits him with the design.  Reference was made in the passage that work would commence in the fall.   

Mr. Waters utilized the Italianate style which was becoming the new fashion in architecture, he used a similar design on Oshkosh's Franklin School in 1871.  The Sheboygan Falls school was of brick and sat on a high foundation and employed a lengthwise plan with the entry a the center of a narrower portion at the front of the building.  Fenestration through out the building exhibited roman arches.  The entrance was gained by a flight of steps and was a set of double doors with a fan light above.  To each side of the doors were single windows and above the door was a set of double widows flanked by single windows, in the gable was a small round window and atop the roof was a wooden bell tower.  The walls receding to the main structure were perhaps fifteen feet and at the intersection there was a single window on both floors as well as on the short adjacent walls.  Turning the corner, the school continued for a distance of fifty or sixty feet, along it's course were three chimneys and ten single windows and set of double on the first floor with a window and door to a fire escape above.  A low pitched hip roof with a balustrade about the perimeter near the peak capped the building.  As designed the school had mostly single windows along the sides but this must have prove problematic for as the building aged windows were added.  A postcard image from the 1880's shows double windows on the first story and an image from 1890's features additional windows on the second floor.  In 1900 a replacement was built  next to the old school which continued to serve as an elementary school until it was razed in 1968.  

Ripon High School

Mr. Waters' architectural influence was seen throughout the state of Wisconsin, from Ashland on Lake Superior's southern shore to Watertown situated along the Rock River.  Much of his work outside of Oshkosh was within a short distance of home.  A May 19th, 1881 article in the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern was an interview with the architect and a litany of his works in progress.  He's quoted as saying, "I've never known business to be so rushing in the office as it was this spring."   The demand was largely, however, from out of town.  Ripon, some twenty miles southwest of Oshkosh was a place which provided several building commissions: including residential, educational and commercial structures.  One of the buildings mentioned in the newspaper was a new school house in that city.    

The building was to be built of brick 67' x 94' with a basement and two stories high at a cost of $12,000, that was all the write up had to say about the building.  Queen Anne was the favored style at the time and the new school was very stylish with bricks of a light hue and contrasting dark bands and window accents.  It possessed an asymmetrical plan; behind the central bell tower was a transverse pavilion with a gabled roof of sorts.  At the center of the left elevation arose a chimney, which at the roof line met with a small gable, the main portion of the roof formed a hip at the corners but at the point above the small gable continued to the peak as a gable, making for a complex and interesting design feature.  Along the front of the roof was gabled dormer with a small window.  To the right of the steeple was another pavilion, at a right angle to the main building, it too had a gabled roof.  There was a porch and entrance on the front of the tower which rose high above the school, capped by a peaked roof.  The building remained in use as a high school and served grades one through eight until it was demolished 1912.

New Lisbon High School

On April 21, 1900 the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern reported that the firm of William Waters & Son was successful in it's bid to win the design contract for the high school at New Lisbon, a community about ninety five miles west of Oshkosh in Juneau County.  The building was to cost $25,000 and the younger Mr. Waters was on his way to that city to advertise for a contractor and make other preparations.  A year later there was another article regarding the New Lisbon school, praising the community of a thousand citizens for building a fine and modern school.  The headline read "High School at New Lisbon Tho Small May Give Oshkosh Ideas."  Perhaps that was an admonishment, suggesting the Oshkosh School Board may wish to scrutinize the plans of the building; there being a protracted discussion about a new high school in Oshkosh.  

The write-up went on to describe the new structure as two stories 73'x 105' built of Bedford limestone and red pressed brick.  The assembly room, measuring forty  by sixty was on the second floor as well as the principal's office, and two each of the following: laboratories, recitation rooms and cloak rooms.  The first floor was occupied by five class rooms, the basement housed wash rooms, furnace room, a large play room for use on rainy days and the third floor attic was one large room outfitted as a gymnasium.  The building was   a transverse layout with large wings on either side of a receding wall at center containing an arched entry of segmented limestone, other trim as well as the foundation were of the same stone.  The rest of the structure was of red pressed brick, laid with recessed courses every two feet or so giving the first floor walls a layered look.  A band of stone divided the first and second floors with brick work quoins decorating the corners of the second story walls, the window featured jack arch lintels.  Above it a tall hip roof covered it all; four small dormers graced the front of each wing and great chimneys towered over the roof.  A large dormer  dominated the center of the roof just below an elegant bell tower.  By the start of classes 1901, the students of New Lisbon had a fine new school but which was to have a short existence for on the night of March 10, 1907 it was consumed by a fire.  All that remained were portions of the front entry, left wing outer walls and the chimneys.

Shawano and Marshfield High Schools

Smith School in Oshkosh, Wittenberg and Brandon High Schools were not the only schools for which Mr. Waters used the same plans.  The 1880's were busy times for William Waters with much work in Oshkosh and the growing north land.  In mid December of 1887 a one line notice was printed in the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern stating the architect was preparing plans for a school in Shawano.  No mention was made that it was to be the new high school and the reader is given no dimensions, construction materials or other specifications.  One may speculate the school was built in 1888 and may have been finished by the start of school that year.  The building remained in service for many years but not always as the high school, later it became a grade school and was renamed Lincoln School but was destroyed by fire in 1924. 

On August 8th of 1889 the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern reprinted a brief article from the Marshfield Times, which announced that William Waters was in town to submit plans for the new high school to the building committee, which accepted them.  These drawing were said to be with very few alterations, the same as those of the Shawano High School.  In the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern of July 2,1890 it was noted that the new Marshfield High School was completed; it measured 50' x 94', two stories high with seven rooms and cost $15,000.  This building was used as the high school for a time but was replaced in 1899, became known as Central Avenue School and was renamed Washington School in 1906.  The building eventually was no longer needed and was demolished in 1957.

These two schools employed a transverse arrangement with a prominent bell tower at the center.  The fenestration of the front elevation was regular with eight windows in the foundation, twelve large apertures  on the first and second floors and two small window on both floors adjacent to the tower.  Perhaps these smaller widows opened into cloak rooms while the larger windows were ostensibly class rooms windows. The entrance, gain by by a flight of steps was at the center of the tower protected by a covered porch with a gabled roof.  The school in Shawano was of light colored brick with dark courses forming bands, the arched   lintels also had dark accents, Marshfields' school built of red brick and plain lintels.  A hip roof with large dormers at either end capped the structure.  The major variation between the two, beside the brick color was the belfry; Shawanos' had louvered covered openings on each side and Marshfield had small columns which gave the tower a Romanesque appearance.

Brandon High School

A useful tool for research is the internet, one can visit many places and times, never leaving the office.  While viewing images of schools I was astonished to find one of  the Brandon High School located in a village in western Found du Lac county.  I thought at once it had to be a Waters' job because of its' remarkable resemblance to both Smith School in Oshkosh and the High School in Wittenberg.  It was perplexing that in all my investigation of William Waters I'd never seen any reference to the Brandon school.  I contacted the Brandon Historical Society but they had no information on the building at all.  Other attempts to find a written  record of the architect proved just as fruitless.  Online archives of the local newspaper, "The Brandon Times" had nothing of high schools' construction and no school histories were to be found.  The school no longer exists as an institution, having been combined with another small rural high school. 

As of this writing I still have no written proof that William Waters planned the structure but I'm willing to say he authored the plans.  Here's my reasoning: The front elevation from the roof down was the same on this building as that of Smith School, Oshkosh and Wittenberg High School; a central pavilion with two arched entrances behind which a flight of steps led to the front door.  Above these portals were three sets of double windows with arched tops.  The wings on either side of center had on the first floor two sets of double arched windows, like those above the entry and four windows across the second floor. The right side elevation was the same as the other schools with four sets of windows on the first floor and eight windows on the second floor.  The left elevation was a departure from the established pattern, just three sets of windows on the first floor and six along the upper floor implying a divergent floor plan.  The greatest modification  was the roof; Where as the schools in Oshkosh and Wittenberg had low hipped roofs the Brandon school's roof was reminiscent of that of  Winneconne's West Side School. (See "Small Schools" May 2010.)  The roof featured large dormers on either end such as those found on the Shawano and Marshfield high schools.  A diminutive bell tower with an almost onion like dome crowned the peak of the front elevation.  The years of the building's constructions is unknown to me but I would recon it to be circa 1900 give or take five years either side of that date.  It is unclear when the school was demolished, perhaps sometime in the 1980's.

Wittenberg High School

The Shawano county village of Wittenberg was founded in the early 1880's with the Rev. E. L. Homme as one of its' prime movers.  He's even credited with naming the place and like its' German name sake it was a center of learning and hot bed of Lutheranism. The Reverend Homme, in 1881 formed Wittenbergs' first house of worship, Immanual's Church.  Later he built an orphanage and home for the aged.  There was a time when the village had seven schools; Wittenberg Public School, Wittenberg High School, St Paul Lutheran School, The Government Indian School, Bethany Indian Mission, Homme's Orphan School and The Wittenberg Academy 

The subject of this posting will be the Wittenberg High School.  It was February 19, 1897 when a note appeared in the Oshkosh Northwestern regarding sealed bids for the construction of a new high school in Wittenberg.  The plan  for which could be viewed at the office of William Waters and the office of contractor W. G. Heins in Wittenberg.  That's all the newspaper had to say on the subject.  The proposed structure was based on the same plan used for Oshkosh's Smith School built in 1895.  With but a few minor differences the schools were identical, with the biggest contrast being the brick color; Smith School was a light hue and the high school was a dark shade.  The building had a transverse layout, a central pavilion had two arched entrances behind which steps led to the front door. Above were sets of three arched windows while the wings on either side included two arched double windows on the first floor and four single arched window above.  This pattern was repeated along the sides.  The building was topped with a hip roof with ample eves supported by long brackets.  For nearly ninety years the building served the community but was replaced, falling to the wrecking ball in the mid 1980's.