Property Record
120 E MADISON ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | L.D. Fargo Public Library |
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| Other Name: | LORENZO DOW FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 6952 |
| Location (Address): | 120 E MADISON ST |
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| County: | Jefferson |
| City: | Lake Mills |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1902 |
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| Additions: | 1966 1980 |
| Survey Date: | 1999 |
| Historic Use: | library |
| Architectural Style: | Early Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | GEORGE FERRY |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Fargo, L. D., Public Library |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 1/18/1982 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| 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 State Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation. FIELD STONE GOTHIC REVIVAL LIBRARY DEDICATED IN 1902. FUNDED BY LORENZO FARGO AND HIS BROTHER. MUCH OF THE LABOR WAS VOLUNTEER. MUCH OF THE STONE CAME FROM THE OLD FARGO FARM. SECOND STORY ROOMS INTENDED FOR USE BY WOMEN'S CLUBS AND W.C.T.U. There are plans for expanding the L.D. Fargo Public Library but as of 1998, there is no set date for this expansion. (C). (D) Ferry and Clas’s charming library shows the early-twentieth-century transition from the late Gothic Revival to the emerging Neo-Tudor style. Stonemason L.A. Giles laid locally quarried fieldstone of gray, brown, and russet hues in a random pattern, giving the two-story walls a polychromatic, tapestry-like appearance. Parapeted gables at the end walls and the central pavilion lend a sense of massiveness. Below the ridge of the steeply pitched roof, an array of gabled wall dormers and cross-gables animates the facade, and a gabled canopy shelters the arched main entrance. The curved and cusped bargeboards along the canopy are particularly exuberant, with their tangles of leaves and berries carved in wood. Crowning the roof, a delicately proportioned belvedere tapers into an attenuated spire with a flared base and gablet ventilators. The spire replicates the original, which was destroyed by fire in 1981. On the interior, only the heavy-beamed ceilings remain. Fargo, the building’s namesake, arrived from upstate New York in 1840 and established a grist mill, a foundry, a store, a bank, a creamery, a hotel--indeed, nearly every business in town. His generosity financed this library. |
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| Bibliographic References: | A. WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES 11/13/1995. B. Watertown Daily Times 12/4/1996. C. December 1998 phone conversation with Susan Krieger, library employee. D. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |