| 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, Division of Historic Preservation-Public History.
Moved from 402 First Street. Hip roof with square central section raised and capped with another hip roof. Douglas Sauerhering was the physician who started Wausau's first hospital, Riverside, in 1893.
2018 survey report write-up: Rising two full stories with an additional attic-type story, this vinyl-sheathed, Colonial Revival-inspired house includes modest bracket trim beneath its overhanging eaves, while a full railing encircles the attic-story roofline. A single-story porch with a second-floor porch balcony shelters the pair of entrances to the home, while a two-story, canted bay extends from the south side of the house. Windows throughout the house include some original examples with decorative diamond paning; however, many are one-over-one-light, double-hung sash. The attic level includes small square windows on at least three of its four elevations, some of which retain their four-light storms.
Although several sources suggest the house was built in 1892 or 1893, the Dr. Douglas Sauerhering home appears to have been built in 1897. Sauerhering was born in Mayville, Dodge County, Wisconsin, in 1861, the son of physician Adolph Sauerhering. Douglas worked for six months with the noted surgeon Dr. Nicholas Senn (in Milwaukee), after which he attended the Chicago Medical College at Northwestern University, graduating in 1886. Sauerhering then worked with his father at his office, but moved to Wausau that same year to practice medicine on his own. He later pursued post graduate studies in New York and Germany in 1888 and 1892, respectively, returning again to Wausau, where he opened the Riverside Hospital (no longer extant) in 1892. In 1897, Sauerhering built his home immediately south of the hospital on N. 1st Street (then Main Street), just north of its intersection with Jefferson Street. Sauerhering operated the hospital until 1905. He and his first wife Hulda (married in 1888) occupied the house until they divorced, after which he wed Magdalen (in 1904) and they remained in the house until Douglas’s death in 1922. The house was identified as “for sale” in January 1923. The house was moved to 905 N. 1st Street in 1925, and it was moved again in 1970 across the street to its current location at 908 N. 1st Street. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) "Historic Homes," Wausau Daily Record Herald, June 27, 1964, p. 14.
Friends of Wausau Historic Landmarks, May-June, 1995.
Citations for 2018 survey information below: Regarding the date of construction for the house, The Wausau Daily Record-Herald, Souvenir Edition, 1897 includes an entry on Sauerhering that concludes as such, “Dr. and Mrs. Sauerhering, with their two children, will soon occupy their handsome new residence on Main Street, south of the Riverside Hospital.” Louis Marchetti, History of Marathon County, Wisconsin, 2 vols. (Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1913), 2/44-45; George Alfred Martin, comp., Wausau in 1900, Originally published as a supplement to the December 25, 1900 editions of the Central Wisconsin, Wausau Daily Record-Herald and Wausau Pilot newspapers, Indexed and reprinted by John Janke and Jane Janke Johnson (Wausau, WI: Birch Lake Press, 1987), 43, 45; U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1900, 1910, 1920; Wausau City Directory, 1901, 1910, 1918, 1920; Ads for the sale of the Sauerhering home (incorrectly spelled Sauerherring), Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 23 & 24 January 1923, 11/4 and 2 February 1923, 11/3; “The Doctor Sauerhering Mansion, Wausau, WI,” Booklet prepared in 2010 by Joseph F. Kelley, owner of the subject home, Information provided with a National Register Questionnaire submittal for the subject house, 908-910 N. 1st Street, Wausau, Site file at the WHS Division of Historic Preservation. “Husband, Wife Operated Wausau’s First Hospital,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, Centennial Edition, 30 June 1972, 14. |
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