Property Record
309 DIVISION ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Capt. Matthew J. Meade House |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 16764 |
| Location (Address): | 309 DIVISION ST |
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| County: | Outagamie |
| City: | Kaukauna |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1884 |
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| Additions: | 1896 |
| Survey Date: | 1993 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Italianate |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Aluminum/Vinyl Siding |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Meade, Capt. Matthew J., House |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 3/29/1984 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: | Multiple Resources of Kaukauna |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' (Kaukauna Historic Properties) exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation-Public History. F in the photo codes is for FCS. "Situated on a hill that slopes down to the Thilmany Paper Mills and the Fox River, this picturesque Italian Villa is "L-shaped" in plan and has a large three-story square tower which makes up the central portion of the building. Aluminum siding now covers the original clapboarding and decorative brackets that once supported the overhanging eaves. Although the house originally had three porches (one extending the length of the south facade; one located to the east of the building; and one a screened porch wrapping around the tower) only the latter one remains. Gable roofs face both the Fox River and the Street. An old photograph reveals that the residence once had two corbelled chimneys projecting from the roof's surface. The house has irregular fenestration (window sizes vary) and a newer two-story north wing. The interior plan consists of ten rooms. The Meade House was built by Captain Matthew J. Meade in 1884 and was his home until his death in 1896. Captain Meade was an important land and water power developer in the Fox Valley and a political leader of Wisconsin Territory and state. He was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania in 1823 and came to Green Bay in 1840, where he became County Clerk and Register of Deeds in Brown County,w hich at that time included the Fox Valley. He was commissioned Captain of Company F, 32nd Wisconsin Volunteers on September 25, 1862, and went to the front at Memphis, Tennessee. He later accompanied Sherman on the famous march through Georgia and was discharged for disability just before the end of the Civil War. In the fall of 1865 he was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate. Matthew Meade was a large landholder in the Fox Valley, together with George W. Lawe of Kaukauna, his family donated land for the campus of Lawrence University of Appleton. In Kaukauna, his large real estate holdings included the Islands in the Fox River, and in 1880 together with Captain N.M. Edwards, he began to build a water power canal, which was finished in the following year. The Meade and Edwards Canal produced about 2,500 horsepower, about half of which was used by 1886 by the Union and Kelso Pulp Mills. Meade sold his interest in the power canal to the Van Nortwyck family, who owned paper and pulp mills in Batavia, Illinois, Kaukauna, and whose Appleton Paper and Pulp Company mill housed the first Edison hydroelectric plant from 1882-85. The Matthew Meade home on the north bank of the Fox River overlooks the islands, the site of the early mills and the Meade and Edwards water power canal, the ship canal and present Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company." Walking Tour Through Old Kaukauna: Two Self-Guided Historic Tours Kaukauna, Wisconsin, City of Kaukauna, 1983. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Kaukauna Tax assessment Rolls 1886-1982. (B) History of the Streets of Kaukauna, p. 38. (C) Old Photograph. (D) Residential Appraisal Card. (E) H.J. Mulholland ms., Outagamie Historical Society Collection, p. 1. Walking Tour Through Old Kaukauna: Two Self-Guided Historic Tours Kaukauna, Wisconsin, City of Kaukauna, 1983. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |