Northwest Side Historic District

About this property

The Northwest Side Historic District is residential district in central Stoughton, Wisconsin, United States with 251 contributing homes built from 1854 to 1930. In 1998, the neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Settlement of Stoughton began in 1847, when Luke Stoughton, an immigrant from Vermont, bought 800 acres along the Catfish River, built a sawmill there, and platted a town. Part of that original plat overlaps the southeast part of the historic district described in this article. The town grew, especially when the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad built a line into town in 1853. The big cash crop in the area shifted from wheat 1850s to tobacco by the 1860s. Wagon-building became an important industry in the 1860s. The village incorporated in 1868, with about 950 people. The early population of the town was largely Yankees, but Norwegian immigrants began to arrive in the 1870s. By 1900 about 75% of the population had Norwegian roots and the town was known as "Little Norway." The district was added to the State Register of Historic Places in 1997 and to the National Register of Historic Places March 5, 1998. It is roughly bounded by Van Buren Street on the west, Clyde Street on the north, Grant Street and the Yahara River on the east, and Main Street on the south. The Nathan Parker house at 600 West Main Street is a 1+1⁄2-story Greek Revival-styled frame house built in 1854–55. Characteristic of the style are the rather low-pitched roof, the frieze boards and cornice returns, the corner pilasters, and the sidelights and transom that frame the front door. The Charles Allen house at 408 W. Washington St. is a 1+1⁄2-story gabled ell form house, with the roof pitch and simple cornice returns showing some Greek Revival stylings. The Paul Tannert house at 309 N. Page St. is a more refined example of Italianate style, with fancier brackets and more formal frames around the windows. This house was built in 1883. Leslie Vollmert observes in the NRHP nomination that the upper-class of Stoughton were faithful to the Italianate style for many years after it went out of style elsewhere, with Italianate stylings appearing in a house built in 1904. The Annie Wyman house at 224 N. Page St. is a rather restrained wooden Italianate-styled 2-story house built in 1885. The house's hip roof and broad eaves supported by brackets are characteristic features of Italianate style. The Gerard house at 118 N. Page St. is a Queen Anne-styled cottage built in 1886, with the shingles in the gable ends and asymmetric wrap-around porch which are hallmarks of the style. The porch is decorated with elaborate spindle-work, with a round section with a pointed roof built into the corner. Era Gerard was a lumber man from Michigan, and vice-president of Stoughton Light and Fuel.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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