National or State Registers Record
1002 E FOREST AVE
National or State Register of Historic Places
| Historic Name: | Isabel and Orrin Johnson House |
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| Reference Number: | 100010486 |
| Location (Address): | 1002 E FOREST AVE |
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| County: | Winnebago |
| City/Village: | Neenah |
| Township: |
| The Isabel and Orrin Johnson House in Neenah is of local architectural significance as an outstanding example of the Arts and Crafts period of construction. The present unaltered house was built in 1919 by Isabel Johnson on the foundations of the residence she built for her mother in 1901. It exhibits a stately simplicity on the exterior, combined with period revival references both inside and out that is characteristic of the Arts and Crafts period. It was replete with numerous innovations in luxurious living, including a floor plan with interconnecting rooms and expansive fenestration, a spacious staff quarter on the second floor directly connected to the kitchen and an original heated three-car attached garage that connected to her sitting room and served her love of driving automobiles. Divorced by her first husband on unreported grounds, Isabel married millionaire industrialist Charles R. Smith of Neenah in 1900, the scandal of the divorce hidden by the popularized fable that Ladysmith, Wisconsin had been named in her honor. A great lover of theater and an amateur actress herself, Isabel maintained a flat on New York’s Upper West Side where her husband died in 1916. Isabel then married matinée idol Orrin Johnson, who had performed on stage opposite some of the leading heroines of the time, including Maude Adams and Annie Russell. Through his friendship with Hollywood pioneers Cecil B. DeMille and Thomas Ince, Orrin Johnson also starred in several groundbreaking silent films, including the first cinematic adaptation of “The Three Musketeers”. Orrin Johnson died in 1943 and following Isabel’s death in 1950, their home was deeded to her grandchildren and its contents sold at auction. The Arts and Crafts residence is listed in the National Register individually and as a contributor to the East Forest Avenue Historic District (2005). It retains a high degree of integrity with high-style features of the Arts and Crafts style on the interior, as well as the Georgian Revival style on the interior. |
| Period of Significance: | 1918 |
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| Area of Significance: | Architecture |
| Applicable Criteria: | Architecture/Engineering |
| Historic Use: | Domestic: Single Dwelling |
| Architectural Style: | Other |
| Resource Type: | Building |
| Architect: | Unknown |
| Historic Status: | Listed in the State Register |
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| Historic Status: | Listed in the National Register |
| National Register Listing Date: | 06/26/2024 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 02/23/2024 |
| Number of Contributing Buildings: | 1 |
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| Number of Contributing Sites: | 0 |
| Number of Contributing Structures: | 0 |
| Number of Contributing Objects: | 0 |
| Number of Non-Contributing Sites: | 0 |
| Number of Non-Contributing Structures: | 0 |
| Number of Non-Contributing Objects: | 0 |
| National Register and State Register of Historic Places, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |