| Additional Information: | A 'site file' 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, State Historic Preservation Office.
Photo code #2: 75BR-5/7.
Fine early brick front gabled house with segmental arch windows and corbelled brick windowheads throughout.
The front entrance has the same segmental arch shape and hood and has a single sidelight and transom light. There is a shed roof, rectilinear bay on the east facing facade with four narrow segmental arch windows. Gustav Bensel (1842-1925) emigrated as a young man from Posen, Prussia to Green Bay. He married Emilie Henkelmann (1849-1925) in 1872; she was also from Posen but they met in Green Bay. Gustav was naturalized in 1884. They had seven children (Gustav, Martha, Marie, Edmund, Clara, Alvina, and Charles).
Gustav Bensel purchased 10 acres and built a house at 1032 Dousman Street in Fort Howard. He spoke seven languages including his native German. He had a successful career in Green Bay as a grain buyer, and organized and was active in the German Lutheran Church. The Bensels owned the house until 1963.
The Bensels kept a small farm with a cow, a cornfield, apple trees, vegetable garden, and a "daisy field". Clara was the last Bensel to live there, and she died in March, 1963.
The house has been recently extensively remodeled inside, and little if any of the original interior remains. The back portion of the house appears to have been removed in 2018.
Emilie (Henkelmann) Bensel's parents, Wilhem and Henriette (Schielke), were from Prussia, and lived in Green Bay at 1144 S. Quincy. The building is still standing. It is thought that the nearby Emilie Street was named after her.
It is also thought that Alvina Street in Green Bay is named after Alvina Bensel, one of Gustav’s daughters.
The address of the house was given as 1500 Dousman Street on postcards from the 1905-1915 era.
Garage.
Green Bay Intensive Survey Phases 2, 3 & 4 |
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