West Fifth Street-West Sixth Street Historic District

About this property

The West Fifth Street-West Sixth Street Historic District is part of an older neighborhood west of the downtown in Marshfield, Wisconsin. It consists of 58 homes built from 1900 to 1958 in many of the styles from that period, including homes of some of Marshfield's leaders. In 2006 the district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places for its concentration of intact historical architecture. White settlement of Marshfield began in 1872 when the Wisconsin Central Railroad built its rail line through the forest just north of what would become the district, at a point where the moraine was fairly easy for a train to ascend. Hotels and saloons sprang up, then other businesses, mostly along the railroad and Central Avenue. The Upham sawmill and factories were built around where Weinbrenner Shoes stands now, and homes spread out around all of these. Some of the early prestigious neighborhoods were centered around William Upham's home and Pleasant Hill east of the downtown. Marshfield was growing. In 1890 its population was approaching 4,000 and the first high school was built. By 1898 the population had grown to 5,800 and the city decided to build a larger high school on what was then the west edge of the city. The new school was built at the location now occupied by the old Washington school at Oak Avenue and 5th Street. It was called McKinley High School, opened in 1900, and served as a high school until it burned in 1936. The new school stood at the base of a gentle hill, much of which was the farm of George Adler. With the school built, it was clear that this part of town would be stable, and developers began buying portions of farmland and platting residential additions. These started down on Oak Avenue near the school and worked their way back up the hill. The new neighborhood attracted some community leaders: city attorney Raymond Williams; Robert Connor Jr. son of one of Marshfield's lumber barons and later mayor; and Charles Blodgett, hotelier, lumber man, and later butter and egg dealer. When these community leaders settled in the neighborhood, others followed. Lots in the new neighborhood around the McKinley School were generally larger than in older parts of Marshfield - rather deep lots with no alleys behind. This may have been due to changing times, the status of buyers they were trying to attract, or the state of medicine at the time. There were no antibiotics yet and the advice for some diseases like tuberculosis was to get lots of light and fresh air. Many houses in the district include sun porches - partly a result of similar health concerns.

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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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