Property Record
MCLEISH RD, W SIDE, .1 M S OF DURWARD GLEN RD
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | ST. MARY'S OF THE PINES, DURWARD'S GLEN |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 3314 |
| Location (Address): | MCLEISH RD, W SIDE, .1 M S OF DURWARD GLEN RD |
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| County: | Columbia |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Caledonia |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 11 |
| Range: | 8 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 18 |
| Quarter Section: | NW |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: | NE |
| Year Built: | 1866 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1975 |
| Historic Use: | church |
| Architectural Style: | Early Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Fieldstone |
| Architect: | B.I. DURWARD & NEIGHBORS |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Durward's Glen |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 11/7/1978 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' (Durward's Glen) 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. Durward's Glen reflects the romantic idealism of the mid-nineteenth century, a time when many Americans looked to nature for spiritual and aesthetic inspiration. Its founder, Bernard Isaac Durward, was a poet and portrait-painter. He had recently converted to Catholicism when, in 1862, he chose this picturesque glen with its meandering stream as the location for his studio. He and his family lived here as artistic monks, referring to themselves by such names as "Poet Father" and "Artistic Brother." Indeed, the setting inspired Durward to reach higher levels of creativity. In 1893, his major work of poetry, Cristofero Columbo, was praised at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The complex at Durward’s Glen was constructed incrementally over two decades in the Gothic Revival and Italianate manner, the favored styles of the picturesque movement in rural America. Durward first erected a cottage beside a stream in 1866 (destroyed by fire in 1951), then a chapel named “St. Mary's of the Pines.” Standing on a hill above the glen, the simple Gothic Revival structure of rough-cut local stone features a round window above the altar, two lancet windows, and a pointed-arch entry. The Madison Council of the Knights of Columbus installed the present interior and roof after fire gutted the chapel in 1923. Durward's son Charles painted the Madonna hanging above the altar. A few years after the chapel was built, Charles erected a small board-and-batten studio and cottage for himself southwest of the pond (now adjacent to a parking lot). Paired arched windows, surmounted by a circular window, pierce each of the side-gabled elevations to evoke the Gothic Revival, as do the two hooded entries, the steeply-pitched roof, and the quatrefoils on the gables. The full-length porch, however, is atypical, and the rear addition is relatively new. In 1887, a second son, John, constructed a two-story stone studio for his father. Though this building, too, has paired arched windows crowned with a round light, this time the style is less evocative of a medieval hermitage, having a low-pitched hipped roof, wide roof overhang, and arched windows crowned by prominent lintels, in the Italianate manner. In the early 1930s, the Order of Saint Camillus, dedicated to the care of the sick, acquired the property and established a novitiate. Their building--a rustic resort-style log structure--was built in 1934. Today, Durward’s Glen houses a retreat for holistic healing, open by reservation. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |