Property Record
104 S WATER ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | RICHARD EMERSON ELA HOUSE |
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| Reference Number: | 10697 |
| Location (Address): | 104 S WATER ST |
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| County: | Racine |
| City: | Rochester |
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| Year Built: | 1839 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1975 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Greek Revival |
| Structural System: | Timber Frame |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| 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 Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation. RETURNED EAVES. DENTICULATED CORNICE DOOR W/SIDELIGHTS, PILASTERS. DENTICULATED PEDIMENTED CORNICE. STONE OUTBLDG W/RAISED MORTAR JOINTS AND STONE SILLS. Joshua Glover, an escaped slave who was apprehended in 1854 under the Fugitive Slave Act, was taken to this house after he was freed from a Milwaukee jail, although Chauncey Olin, Glover's conductor, did nto mention the building in his reminiscences. Other accounts, however, indicate that fugitives other than Glover had been hidden in the building. The number of such fugitives, and their names, are not known. The Richard E. Ela house is where Joshua Glover and his conductor, Chauncey C. Olin, stopped in March 1854 on their way from Prairieville (Waukesha) to Racine. Olin, who had known Ela since the early 1840s and who had been married in Rochester, asked for a fresh team to continue the journey, which Ela readily furnished along with $5. In his reminiscences, Olin said that while Ela hitched the fresh team to the wagon, Glover was taken in to the house, where he and Olin had "a cup of hot tea and lunch" with Mr. and Mrs. Ela before continuing on to Racine. The house is still in the Ela family. Richard Emerson Ela was a carriage and wagonmaker of Lebanon, New Hampshire." Perrin, Richard W. E.,Historic Wisconsin Architecture, First Revised Edition (Milwaukee, 1976). |
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| Bibliographic References: | ZIMMERMANN, RUSSELL "THE HERITAGE GUIDEBOOK" (HERITAGE BANKS 1976). The Underground Railroad in Burlington and Vicinity, Burlington Historical Society, 2002, pp. 17-18. Architecture and History Survey. “County Trunk Hwy D – Bridge B-51-0578” WHS project number 14-0275/RA. February 2013. Prepared by Mead & Hunt Inc. Bur Spur of Wisconsin's Underground Railroad brochure. Perrin, Richard W. E.,Historic Wisconsin Architecture, First Revised Edition (Milwaukee, 1976). |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |