Shelter among man's basic needs

     Architecture in this country developed out of need for shelter and it wasn't until later that the more modern houses came into being.
     The first houses built in this country were about 20 by 20 feet and were used for common propose, for shelter and for the Puritans to store their goods and equipment during winter months.
     Other crude, but more comfortable homes, were built in Virginia by prisoners sentenced there and by those coming to that state to avoid religious persecution.

Early structures rather crude

     Needless to say, these were rather crude buildings and put together in haste with whatever material was available.
     First mansions appeared in Jamestown, Va., about the middle of the 17th century and one was constructed as the county seat for Sir William Berkeley, governor of the colony.
      The original structure of the old college at Harvard was built in 1642 and was one of the most tremendous undertakings in this country at the time. It is still being used.
      Architecture of this nation came from influences of every country. In Eau Claire, there are representatives of the carious types and combinations of others.

Various foreign influences

     The inspirations of various designs have come from numerous alien sources. This has been an important factor which has influenced and modified these foreign strains in different ways and in different regions of the country.
     Because of the materials used and their availability, and with the melting pot of people in this nation, architecture was bound to be influenced by a combination of the better features.
     Each home speaks reliable of a particular time and place in history according to man's needs at the time. All homes, at one time or another, were up-to-date solutions of man's problems with shelter and style.

First Eau Claire home in 1832

     The first family to live in Eau Claire at least over the winter months, was the Louis Demarie family. That family stayed here in 1832-33. Their home was on the west bank of the Chippewa River opposite the mouth of the Eau Claire River.
     It was a combination house and fur-trading station.
     Steve S. McCann and Jeremiah C. Thomas moved into the area in 1845 and the following year built the first permanent log cabin home. Ten years later there were only about 100 persons in Eau Claire, most of them mill hands.
     These early people were not concerned with what a home looked like, just so it had a roof on it and provided shelter. Early buildings were basically created from what the builder had on hand.

Started to use wood frame

     As the mills here started to saw more varied dimensions of wood, frame houses came into being.
     Herman Schlegelmilch is credited with building the first brick buildings in Eau Claire, although some probably were being built in communities where bricks were being made. Schlegelmilch used bricks in 1871 in his house at 517 S. Farwell Street, which still stands. There has been some modernization over the years.
     Brick had to be brought in by oxen and wagon because none was known to have been made in Eau Claire at the time. The first trains still hadn't linked the community with others.

Many materials shipped in

     Glass and many other materials had to be shipped into the valley, much of it from the east, although there were some glass producing plants in Iowa.
     Most of the craftsmen carried into the area the skills they had learned elsewhere. Most of the work was done on the job, resulting in high quality work. Nothing was mass produced.
     J. G. Thorp, one of the wealthier lumber barons, brought craftsmen from Norway to work on his house, but most builders employed craftsmen who were available.
     Many of the crafts learned by these men have disappeared. As early as 1916 the art of working with cobblestone was already lost. The cobblestone house in Eau Claire at 1011 State Street was built by Brady Marcy, a stonemason from New York. An addition in the early 1900s almost matched his work, indicating that a few of these craftsmen were still here then.
     The stair banisters were all made on the job along with other "frills and fancies", but there is no one who knows how to do these things today.
     The old craftsmen often drilled holes by hand to assemble parts of the building, including laying the hardwood floors. But present-day haste in building to keep the costs down doesn't allow for the time of expertise and quality.

Affluent age arrives in 1880s

     The so-called "affluent age" of the lumber baron here arrived in the 1880s or perhaps a little sooner.
     The more wealthy persons in both large and small communities built the largest houses, some trying to out-do the others.
     During this period many of the larger homes in Eau Claire were constructed. The O.H. Ingram home, built on the corner of Third and Hudson, now torn down, cost $35,000 for the house, carriage house and property.
     The George F. Winslow home on Oak Place Drive, formally the Arnold home, was built for $4,500 in 1894. It is now on the Eau Claire list of Landmarks.
     Working men had to be content with smaller homes, some which could be purchased for $400 to $500. In some parts of Eau Claire and in a few area communities there are still some row-type houses built by the lumber companies as employees' homes. There was no respect for yards or distances between homes. It was fast housing and homes were built close together to save land. However, fire could destroy an entire block.
     Older houses had to undergo some changes when more modern conveniences were invented. When indoor plumbing came on the scene, older houses were remodeled to provide space for the bathroom.

Use other rooms for bathroom

     This often resulted in using the large pantries or maybe the smallest of the bedrooms. This is one reason why, in older homes the bathrooms are so large.
     In addition, in some older homes, such as Bundy Hall in Menomonie, built around 1863, nearly all bathrooms are a step up because they had to have some place to build in the pipes.
     At first all commercial buildings in Eau Claire were of two-story, wood construction with a porch on the front.
     After 1870, a series of fires plagued Eau Claire. This changed some construction methods. Two or three blocks were wiped out by a fire on Water Street in 1882. When reconstruction started bricks were used and builders started to incorporate fire walls between buildings. Old buildings here had three rows of bricks dividing the buildings. Building codes did not call for the fire walls at the time.
     It was after the fire that the Pioneer Block on Water Street was built at a cost of $22,000.
     Pressed brick became more popular in building and the designs became more noticeable. Traces of the architecture from that period are still evident in the second and third stories of homes. Many of the first floors have been altered over the years.
     Original Colonial, Salt Box and Cape Cod designs did not appear in the region. However, during recent years houses with this design have been built in the area.
     As before, man will build his shelter the best he can with whatever is available.

	Mansard architecture design is easily recognized by highly distinctive roof lines. Extra living space on top floor can be gained by bending out the slope of the roof. The Mansard roof is pierced by a dazzling variety of dormer windows which include rectangular, pointed, gabled, round and even double rows of dormers in some situations. Dormers are often ornamental with pediments and cosole buttresses. Slate was often used on steep slope of roof. It also has been called Second Empire Style. This house at 470 Summit Ave. is owned by Joseph J. Kaufmann. It was formerly the Dr. Eugene E. Tupper home, built about 1890.
Located at 1501 State Street, Eau Claire, this home, now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Lynnes, is an example of a combination of Victorian Itailanate architectue with brackets, corbeled window hoods and an Itailanate tower with the stick style porch with fancy carving and an exterior frame with shingles, panels of carved ornaments. This house was built around 1880. The design is to resemble Italian country villas with flat or low pitched roofs, extended eaves that emphasize deep, heavy cornices set with ornate brackets. Tall , slender windows and pillared porches with a cupola and balconies are other features of the style.
	This home includes an immense variety of Queen Anne detail but the general effect is one of delicate ornament, arcades, irregular masses, cantilevered gables, porches and roofs. This house, at 1302 State Street is currently owned by Mrs. Arlene Steubing. It was built by A. A. Cutter druing a four-year period from 1885 to 1889. Queen Anne architecture features porches with delicately turned spindlework and horizontal decorative bands. Brick with smooth boards and clapboards were sued for variety.
Gothic Revival style is reflected in the Cobblestone House, 1011 State Street, Eau Claire. the home of Mr. and Mrs Fred Uecke. It was built in 1866 by Bradley H. Marcy. Object of the stle ws to recapture the romance of medieval buildings. Emphasis was on vertical effect, achieved through multiple sharply-pointed gables with slender finials at the peaks. Windows were tall and slender, sometimes topped with a lancet arch. Casement windows were leaded and diamond-shape panes were popular. Wooden verge boards under eaves -- and other decorative woodwork -- was cut with medieval motifs such as trefoils, quarterfoils, gothic crosses and other pointed symbols.
	Although remodeled in recent years, this house at 328 Broadway, Eau Claire, is an example of Carpenter's Gothic. It was built about 1875 by A. P. Wilder and was owned by Charles Ingram. It is now woned by David Graziano. Characteristic details include wooden ornaments at peaks of gables, in verge boards under gables and on porches. Even porch railings and aprons sometimes have patterns sawed from pieces of wood. Designs may also be holes and slots cut out of wood or pieces applied to other boards. Brackets appear on porch posts and cornices. Ornaments depend more on whim of the carpenter-builder than on any architectural style. This type of ornamentation is known as "gingerbread." The ear of this style was mostly 1870 - 1910.
The Cook-Rutledge Mansion in Chippewa Falls is lissted in the National Registry of Historical Places as one of the finest examples of High Victorian-Italianate architecture in the Midwest. The house is a three-story, red-brick structure with its front and center gable and cupola and a one story veranda with an extending porte-cochere. The post cornices and brackets of both the porch and the porte-cochere are elaborately carved. Lacy iron grillwork surmounts the roof and cupola. It was built by James Monroe Bingham, a former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, in 1873. Edward Rutledge, a lumberman, purchased the house in 1887 and began much of the extensive additions and remodeling. It was later purchased by Dayton E. Cooke in 1915 and the family owned it until 1973 when it was deeded to the Chippewa County Historical Society.
	The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright is present in Eau Claire s this house, the former J.D.R. Stevens home at 216 Hudson St., now woned by Robert Brisiel, was designed by Purcell and Wlmslie, products of Wright's Prairie School of Architecture. This style calls for two stories, maybe three, with single story wings, cross-shaped floor plans, porches or carports with a wing generally having only one room with an overall horizontal emphasis on low chimneys and massive features.
Examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture can be found in these buildings in the 1-11 block of South Barstow, the old Samuelson's store location. Features in the second story are somewhat different motif in the tow sections. However, the pattern is similar in many respects and may have been designed by the same architect.
	Courtesy Eau Claire Landmark Commission

-- Fred Uecke, Chairman
Eau Claire Landmark Commission

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.