| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property named 'Villa Louis'. 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.
DOUSMAN WAS PERSONAL AGENT OF JOHN JACOB ASTOR AND WAS REPUTED TO BE THE STATE'S FIRST MILLIONAIRE. NHL.
High above the banks of the Mississippi River rises Villa Louis, an Italianate manor surrounded by the remains of a once grand estate, the home of the Dousman family. Hercules Dousman, the eldest son of fur traders on Mackinac Island, established himself in Prairie du Chien in the mid-1820s, during the last days of the upper Mississippi River fur trade. French voyageurs had been journeying to this spot on the edge of the western territories since the seventeenth century, mingling with native peoples to trade beaver pelts, rum, and horses. As the fur trade declined, Dousman expanded his wealth through investments in steamboats, railroads, timber, and land, including this site of the former Fort Crawford on St. Feriole Island. Here he built a large, red-brick residence on a prominent rise--an ancient Indian mound--commanding a sweeping view of the landscape.
After his death in 1868, his widow Jane and their son, Louis, replaced the old house with an up-to-date model by E. Townsend Mix of Milwaukee. The two-story, cream brick building is Italianate, with widely overhanging bracketed eaves and prominent stone surrounds embracing the arched windows. These basket-handle arches become the dominant motif along the wide veranda, which wraps around the ground floor. Inside, the house incorporated a modern ventilation system, central heating, call bells, and indoor plumbing, befitting the Dousman family’s economic status. Outside, Mix embellished the grounds with a formal garden and a fish pond, fed with waters flowing from an artesian well through an ornamental fountain.
Upon his mother’s death in the late 1880s, Louis and his wife Nina transformed the estate into the Artesian Stock Farm. Harness racing came into vogue after the Civil War, and trendsetters--particularly young men of wealth and leisure like Louis Dousman--pursued the new sport enthusiastically. The rise of the sport’s popularity coincided with the development of American Standardbred trotting horses, noted for speed and endurance. To accommodate almost one hundred head of these horses, Dousman built a stable and carriage house, a half-mile oval racetrack, and quarters for the trainer, and he expanded the old estate office from a one-room, one-story block to a five-room two-story structure with a full-height, L-shaped porch.
With the horse farm largely complete in 1885, the Dousmans turned their attention to the interior of the main residence. Joseph Twyman, a British designer with the Chicago firm of John J. McGrath, transformed mundane rooms of pallid hues into rooms with a profusion of color, texture and pattern, drawing on the aesthetic of William Morris, the British progenitor of the Arts and Crafts movement. This interior refurbishing was almost finished in January 1886 when 37-year old Louis Dousman died after a brief illness. His widow, Nina, renamed the property “Villa Louis” as an enduring memorial to her husband.
In 1936, the Dousman family and the City of Prairie du Chien , opened the doors of the house as a period museum, now owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
A Historic Structure Report of this building can be found in Room 312 at the Wisconsin Historical Society. #12633 #12634 #12635 #12636 #12637 #12638 #12639 #234139 #234143 #234144 #234145 #234146 #234147 #234148 |
|---|
| Bibliographic References: | Prairie du Chein Courier Press 10/23/1995, 8/13/2001.
Wisconsin State Journal, p. 1G, 1/4/1998, 10/2/1995.
The Richland Observer 6/16/1994.
Janesville Gazette 6/2/1996.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 3/6/1999.
KOHLER, P. 70.
PERRIN 1960, P. 27.
Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript.
Perrin, Richard W. E., Historic Wisconsin Architecture, First Revised Edition (Milwaukee, 1976). |
|---|
