Additional Information: | A 'site file' titled "Dow, J.B., House and Carpenter-Douglas Barn" 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.
DAMAGED BY FIRE 9/11/1996. Removed from the National Register on 5/12/2009.
Rising two stories plus attic, the J.B. Dow House has steeply pitched hip roof with flared eaves, chambered side bays, and a broad veranda (all reflective of late Queen Anne influence) but the massing of the house is nontheless restrained by the cubic proportions of the Colonial Revival. Corner pilasters frame the composition, a broad frieze runs beneath the flared eaves, overscaled dormers dominate the roofline, and the veranda, with entablature and heavy Corinthian pillars, wraps around the house on three sides. On the front elevation, the facade is symmetrically organized with the central entry projecting outward in a bay. Framing the door are sidelights with intricately designed leaded and bevelled glass. In transoms above the first floor windows, leaded glass is arranged in swirling geometric patterns. The center panel on the second story features a round-headed window with interlacing muntins. Crowning the house on three sides are large scale dormers with pedimented gables, corner pilasters, and recessed diamond-paned casement windows. The clapboarding is free of ornament and the chimney rises well above the gable ridge.
Combining elements of the late Queen Anne and the early Colonial Revival styles, the J.B. Dow House is an architecturally significant example of Beloit's largest frame residences at the turn of the century. Although other houses reflect the same traditional style seen here, the Dow House is among the most successful in reducing the irregular massing and tall proportions of the Queen Anne to the four-square proportions, simplified (and large scale) classical detailing, and smooth clapboad surfaces characteristic of the early Colonial Revival.
Although the cobblestone barn, built c. 1847, is the only extant example of its type in Rock County, the original house with which it was connected, located on the adjacent lot, was torn down in 1973. The house at 910 Broad Street was built in 1905 by J.B. Dow, a realtor, lawyer, and insurance salesman. The only connection between the barn and the house, however, is that apparently the barn was already on the lot when Dow purchased the property. |