| Additional Information: | Rough stone lintels linked by rough stone belt course; projecting entrance bay with gabled open entrance supported by capped brick piers; minor alterations to structure.
On a tract of wooded land previously known as Chippewa Springs Park sited according to a plan by Chicago landscape architect E. G. Nelson of Chicago, this original dormitory building constructed by Thomas Wooley of LaCrosse in 1896 exhibits the hip roof, gabled roof dormers and symmetrical facade arrangement of a very simplified Georgian Revival design suitable for utilitarian turn of the century public institutional architecture. Dressed Durnville sandstone window sills, caps, coursing, belt courses and water table contrast with the red brick in the design by John Charles also used for the remaining dormitories between 1896 and 1908.
Part of the historic complex now knoan as the Northern Wisconsin Center for the Developmentally Disabled, Cottage #2 is architecturally significant as an excellent representative of institutional architecture as constructed at the turn of the century.
The Wisconsin Home for the Feebleminded was established by the state legislature in 1895 which appropriated $100,000 to purchase land and construct suitable buildings. The first resident was admitted in June of that year. In 1923, the name was changed to the Northern Wisconsin Colony and Training School. It is currently known as the Northern Center for the Developmentally Disabled.
Construction of the building was begun in 1896. A local brick manufacturer, J. B. Theriault, supplied the interior brick for its construction. It is one of the original six structures which were completed for the opening of the home in 1897. It was designed for use as a dormitory and is still used for that purpose.
This building is of significant historical interest to the State of Wisconsin because it is part of the historic development of the Wisconsin Home for the Feebleminded. The creation of the Wisconsin Home for the Feebleminded established the State's commitment to the care of the developmentally disabled.
This structure is of significant historical interest within the institution because it is the only extant building from the original six buildings opened in 1897.
It is of local historical interest that a Chippewa Falls firm was involved in the construction of this building.
RELATED BUILDINGS: outbuildings (11-33,34,36,37), Admin/Chapel (15-23, 31, 37), Cottages (15-21, 22, 24,26, 28, 30, 34, 36), Residence (15-33).
SEE INFORMATION CARD #3088. SEE SF FILE ON CHIPPEWA FALLS |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) The Daily Independent 9 December, 1896.
(B) "Out of the Past," unpublished statistics of Northern Wisconsin Colony and Training School (Northern Center for the Developmentally Disabled).
(C) A History of the State Board of Control of Wisconsin and the State Institutions, 1849-1939 (Madison, Wisconsin: State Board of Control, 1939), pp. 179-180.
(D) The Daily Independent 2 May, 1896.
(E) Wisconsin Blue Book (Madison, 1909), pp. 654-655.
(F) Chippewa Falls (WI) Herald 28 March, 1896.
(G) Chippewa Falls (WI) Herald 1 April, 1896.
(H) Chippewa County Wisconsin Past and Present, vol. 1 (Chicago, 1913), p. 290. |
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