| 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.
Historical Background
Built by Wallace Hill and run as a grocery store by the Hill family. Sold to the McLeods, then to Poirer, then to Lester Schreiber. Sold to the Norzes in 1970.
Upstairs of the store was a center for social activity and the site of many dances and basketball games. When the Schreiber's bought the store it was unheated and they placed a large stove surrounded by a box of sand in the center of the room. The stove was kept lit all day and night to keep the merchandise from freezing.
2017- "The Fish Creek General Store is a two-story ltalianate commercial building. It is rectangular in plan with wooden clapboard exterior walls and a shed roof with a moderately sized cornice supported by paired brackets. A one-story addition to the east features a similar, smaller cornice and brackets. The ground level storefront is centered across both the two-story building and one-story addition, with the central entryway flanked by large display windows and cloth awnings. Windows on the upper story are 2-over-2 double hung and capped by projecting lintels.
The front elevation faces south on Main Street/STH 42 and is asymmetrical in plan. The first story spans the original building and the one-story addition that was constructed prior to 1930, with the entryway centered in this first story. The entryway, originally consisting of a central door flanked by sidelights, was reconfigured at an unknown date into two side doors and a central light. Display windows on either side of the entryway are tri-partite aluminum replacements. The muntins of the aluminum windows line up with the muntins separating the transom windows above. These transoms, once consisting of glass block, have been replaced with single panes of fogged glass. The entryway and display window bays are flanked by brick pilasters that were installed prior to 1940. Above the transom windows is a modest cornice, whose brackets mimic the profile of the brackets on the upper story cornice. The front of the store features two signs, one perpendicular to the facade above the entryway, extending approximately five feet from the front face of the building, and another centered above the first story cornice and flush with the exterior. Arched lighting fixtures illuminate both signs. The second story of the original building contains three equally spaced 2-over-2 double hung windows, with plain sills below and decorative wooden lintels above. The facade is capped by a cornice supported by pairs of elaborate wooden brackets.
The west elevation is partially obscured by the recent one-story addition of the building to the west. The buildings now share a party wall that extends to the bottom of the Fish Creek General Store's second story windows. The original half windows of the first story are now blind on the interior. The five windows on the second story are evenly spaced across the west elevation, and are the original 2-over-2 double hung windows. The eastern elevation consists of the one story addition to the east of the original store, which creates a narrow alleyway with the neighboring building to the east. There are three half windows toward the rear of the one story portion of the east elevation. The second story of the east elevation, similar to the west elevation, contains 5 evenly spaced 2-over-2 double hung windows.
The north elevation of the building consists of the two-story portion of the store as well as a shed-roofed, one-story addition. The top of the staircase which used to provide access to the second floor is visible above the roof of the addition. A wooden staircase now provides an exterior entrance to the second story business. The north elevation contains a single 2-over-2 double hung window on the second story, while the one-story shed addition contains two metal doors off of the loading dock. A wooden ramp leads to one of these doors, running parallel to the trailer that serves as a temporary stock room for the Fish Creek General Store.
The interior of the Fish Creek General Store contains hardwood floors, bead board ceilings, and both built-in and moveable shelving units. The ground floor is largely unchanged from its original layout, with an open sales floor with square wooden columns in two rows from front to back of the store. A metal staircase has been added to the left of the store upon entry, giving interior access to the bar and restaurant upstairs while allowing the main sales floor to be partitioned off via metal gates during closed hours. The rear of the store, located in the one-story shed-roofed addition, has been turned into a deli, with the former staircase to the upper floor still visible in the corner. A corridor flanked by offices leads to the rear entrance and loading dock."
-"Fish Creek General Store", WisDOT#4140-19-71, Prepared by Kelly Noack, (2017).
2014- "This 2-story Italianate commercial building was constructed in 1895 as the Fish Creek General Store. It is rectangular in plan with clapboard walls and a shed roof with paired brackets along the front cornice. The front elevation faces south and is asymmetrical in plan with a recessed entrance flanked by banks of large shop windows with transoms; the banks of windows are separated by brick pilasters. The second story contains three 2-over-2 windows.
At the time of survey, the building’s interior was closed for maintenance purposes, but a portion of it was visible through the accordion gate used to close off the entrance. From this view, the interior is largely intact and consists of one large open space with wood floors and ceilings. Squared wood support posts are located at intervals throughout the interior. The cashier’s counter was not visible, and the second floor was not accessible."
-"STH 42: Bluff Lane (Gibraltar) to Country Walk Dr (Sister Bay), WisDOT#4140-19-00, Prepared by Gail Klein, (2014).
Architectural Description
This three-bay by five-bay two story Commercial Vernacular building has a gently sloped shed roof with a moderately sized cornice and paired brackets. Clad in clapboard, the walls are pierced by two-over-two double hung wood sash windows with projecting lintels. The storefront has been altered and is now large plate glass windows between brick parapets. An addition was constructed on the east side in the 1920s.
Resurveyed April 2014; subsequent changes include the removal of a large composition board panel that covered the transoms above the shop windows and the wall space below the second-story windows. |
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| Bibliographic References: | A. Edward and Lois Schreiber, editors, Fish creek Voices, An Oral History of a Door County Village, (|Sister Bay, WI: Wm. Caxton Ltd), 1990.
B. Door County Almanak No. 5: Tourism, Resorts, Transportation (Sister Bay, WI: The Dragonsbreath Press), 1990. |
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