Property Record
COLLEGE FARM RD, SE CORNER WITH BLOCK HOUSE RD
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Huntington House |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 55765 |
| Location (Address): | COLLEGE FARM RD, SE CORNER WITH BLOCK HOUSE RD |
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| County: | Grant |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Platteville |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 3 |
| Range: | 1 |
| Direction: | W |
| Section: | 25 |
| Quarter Section: | NW |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: | NW |
| Year Built: | 1860 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1995 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Greek Revival |
| Structural System: | Masonry |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| 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: | 1995- "Red brick, Greek Revival, ca. 1860, two-story farmhouse with front gable and side wing. Lintels and sills on the one-over-one doublehung windows are of stone. There is a porch across the front of the side wing. The front door has a free-standing column to the left of the door, suggesting that the doorway originally had sidelights with columns between the door and the sidelights, and that the doorway has been inset further back from the original. A rear wing is a low, gable-roofed addition of red brick. The farmhouse faces east, whereas the road is to the north. Several farms in this section of Grant County and neighboring Lafayette County were first settled by members of the Huntington family. Early plat maps indicate that this property was owned by a R. Huntington in 1868 and by the R. M. Huntington Estate in 1877. The record is somewhat confusing as there were three R. Huntingtons recorded in the 1860 and 1870 census, but piecing together the various historic records seems to show that this farm was owned by an immigrant from Yorkshire, England, named Robert M. Huntington. There are two biographies of a Richard Huntington, which both note that he was one of several brothers who came to Platteville area very early in its settlement history. Richard was the first; he squatted on what was later his farm in 1834 before the government put the land up for sale. Presumably his brothers came soon after. Richard built a commodious brick residence on Section 24 in the late 1850s (it appears that that house is gone). Robert probably built this house at about the same time. One of the biographies of Richard states that "the various representations of this family are all very prosperous, and own fine estates in Grant and Lafayette Counties" (History of Grant County, Wisconsin, 1881, p. 908). The 1860 census lists Robert as a 53-year old farmer from England. His wife was 60-year old Hannah and they had three nearly grown children living with them. Their farm at that time was of comparatively average prosperity. In 1870 Robert and Hannah lived with a miner named Charles stevens, who may have been the husband of one of their grown children, and a William Robinson, a 23-year old farmer. The farm in that year was also of moderate prosperity. The 1895 plat map describes this farm as David Weigel's Evergreen Grove Farm. The farm remained in the Weigel family until sometime after 1985. Nothing is known about the Weigels. This building is a relatively intact red brick Greek Revival farmhouse of pleasant proportions and setting. This house is one of the finest and most intact of the early red brick farmhouses in the Town of Platteville, as identified in the Wisconsin Inventory of Historic Places. Four of the six red brick farmhouses remaining in the Town are cottages of one or one-and-one-half stories. Three of these are in ruinous condition. The fifth is a large, two-story farmhouse of slightly later vintage, the Goke house. The Huntington house is more intact than the Goke house. In the whole of Grant County, early red brick farmhouses were inventoried. Of these, four are large, fancy Victorian houses, such as the Nelson Dewey house. Seven are small cottages, one was photographed from too far away to identify its architectural characteristics, two are five-bay side gabled houses, two are three-bay side-gabled houses and three others besides the subject are three-bay front gabled houses with a side wing. Besides the Goke house already described, one of these is similar in quality and integrity to the Huntington house and the other is also similar in quality except that the front porch across the wing has been enclosed." -"USH 151, Dickeyville to Belmont", WisDOT# 1209-02-00, Prepared by Katherine Hundt Rankin (Preservation Consultant) for Rust Environment & Infrastructure Inc, 1995. |
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| Bibliographic References: |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |