Property Record
8075 OLD SAUK PASS
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Lowe, Richard and Elizabeth, House; Wilkie House |
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| Other Name: | Wilkie, Dr. James and Jane, House |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 4791 |
| Location (Address): | 8075 OLD SAUK PASS |
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| County: | Dane |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Cross Plains |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 7 |
| Range: | 7 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 13 |
| Quarter Section: | SW |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: | NE |
| Year Built: | 1864 |
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| Additions: | 1952 |
| Survey Date: | 1977 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | One Story Cube |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | William Kaeser (architect, 1952 addition); Henry Gerling (builder, 1952 addition) |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' titled "Lowe-Wilkie Farmstead" 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. Other buildings in the property include a bank barn with an attached silo (silo dated 1919), a garage, a hog-chicken house, a Quonset hut, a silage crib, a well house, and a windmill foundation. Property was sold to the National Park Service in 2007 for use as an Ice Age National Scenic Trail Interpretive Site. In February 1851, the U.S. Government issued a patent for the parcel identified here to Henry Morton, who in turn sold the property in April 1857 to Richard Lowe. Thereafter, the land remained in the Lowe family, though at times identified with son-in-laws or other Lowe relatives with different last names. Aldrew Lowe purchased the property in 1917, and he and his wife Laura and daughter Joyce lived there until 1936 when the father and daughter (Laura by then deceased) moved in Madison. The Lowes then rented out the farm until 1952 when Aldrew sold the property to Dr. James and Jane Wilkie, who later sold it to the National Park Service. It is now a component of the Ice Age Complex at Cross Plains, part of the National Ice Age Trail project. According to Lowe family members, the original two-story house, which features walls of native stone blocks 18" thick and 10'x10' hand hewn-oak beams in the basement, was probably constructed in the 1860s. The original house featured a living room and eat-in kitchen on the first floor and three bedrooms on the second. The house had no indoor plumbing and during the early years of the last century the interior of the house was lit - according to Joyce Lowe - with carbide lights. William Kaesner (1906-1995), a prominent Madison architect, designed the addition and other modifications to the property undertaken soon after the Wilkies acquired this property in 1952. A front porch on the north side of the house, reportedly built by Aldrew Lowe and visible in vintage Lowe family photos, was removed and other history elements altered as part of the work carried out by the Wilkies beginning in 1952. A silo near the barn, bearing the name "A.E. Lowe" and "1919" that identify the then current owner and date of construction, was retained, while an old log cabin on the property - a structure that appears in photos taken during April 1952 - presumably was torn down or moved to another location. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Town of Cross Plains Architecture and History Inventory. October 2009. Prepared by Mary Jane Hamilton. Vera Riley, Cathy Fjelstad, and Ken Esser. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |