Property Record
222 11TH AVE W
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Henry and Marie Wildhagen House |
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| Reference Number: | 432 |
| Location (Address): | 222 11TH AVE W |
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| County: | Ashland |
| City: | Ashland |
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| Year Built: | 1895 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 19822016 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Queen Anne |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
| Architect: | HENRY WILDHAGEN |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | 1982 DESCRIPTION: Located on a corner, this large two story house features two prominent well-designed facades. The front entry faces 11th Avenue West and features a sun porch at one end of the circular wraparound veranda. The first story is clapboarded and the second story has a return cornice and a swelling gable peak. The NW facade features a catslide type roof down to the sunporch and a gabled projection near the back. A recent garage is attached to this wall. The West 3rd Street facade is elabated by a prominent gabled two story projection that features a Palladin window on the shingled second story and another swelling gabled peak. a rear entry veranda is beneath broad roof expanse pierced by an eyebrow window. Note the Adamesque oval decorative motif on veranda wall. House is on brownstone foundation. Interior features hardwood floors, an octagonal front parlor, finely detailed stairway and a finely crafted fireplace. 1982 SIGNIFICANCE: This house is architecturally significant because it represents a period of construction when in Ashland the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles were blended. Although houses from this period survive in as good a condition as this property on Chapple Avenue Historic District. There are none like this finely crafted and well preserved house. Jim Matzinger was the home's owner as of 1982. 2017 survey report information: Rising from a stone foundation, this two-story house represents the stylistic transition from Queen Anne to Colonial Revival and features a clapboard-sheathed first floor and a second level covered with wooden shingles. The west (primary) elevation is characterized by a shed-roof, wraparound porch that is divided into a closed-entry portion to the north and an open veranda supported by wooden columns and a turned balustrade to the south. The porch is enclosed with a continuous band of multiple-light sash windows that rest beneath a multiple-light transom; the doorway is topped with a modest pediment, a nod to the home’s Colonial Revival influence. Aside from the original, two-light picture window to the west, the house is largely comprised of double-hung sash arranged singly and in pairs. This house was built in 1895 by architect Henry Wildhagen for himself and his wife Marie. Both Henry and Marie were born in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1886 and 1887, respectively, after which they were married. After designing paper mills in New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin, Henry came to Ashland in 1892. By 1895, he had entered into a partnership with Herman Rettinghaus, a civil engineer. However, within two years, he was working solely as an architect; the practice of which he maintained until his death in 1920. Among the published obituaries for Henry, he is cited as “…one of the best known architects in Northern Wisconsin…”. He is also said to have designed approximately 150 structures within a fifty-mile radius of Ashland. His most notable works in Ashland are his brick and stone school designs--including Beaser, Wilmarth, Ellis and the Ashland High School--all of which were included in a Wildhagen-related thematic National Register nomination that was completed in 1980. Although the Ashland High School on Ellis Avenue is no longer extant, the remaining three still stand as testament to his institutional work. |
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| Bibliographic References: | 2017 survey citations: Thomas and Jennie Bardon to Marie Christiane Wildhagen, WD (6 May 1895), 50/476, #4187; U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1900, 1910, 1920; Ashland City Directory, 1893, 1895, 1897, 1922; “Architect Dead,” Wausau Daily Herald, 23 March 1920, page 3; Smith and Goc, eds., Looking Backward, Moving Forward, 118. Following Henry’s death, Marie moved to the Knight Hotel; she died in 1929, Date of death from “U.S., Find-A-Grave Index, 1600s-Current, Accessed June 2017.” |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |