| 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, State Historic Preservation Office.
Map Code 0709-184-0807-6.
The Jenkins house at 5010 Risser Road was built in 1858 on 137 acres of land by the Reverend Louis H. Jenkins, a Presbyterian minister. The farm extended from the Alf Merril farm to the east, which is now Blackhawk Golf Course, and to a creek on the west, which is now Spring Harbor, and from Old Middleton Road to Lake Mendota. There was no University Avenue. Alf Merrill looked after the Jenkins property when they were not there. In later years he lived with the Pearson family in the Jenkins Farmhouse until his death. The Pearson family named the springs on the old Jenkins family after their friend and neighbor, Alf Merrill.
Louis Jenkins' daughter, Gertrude, married Joseph Pearson in 1877. Mr. Pearson became proprietor of the Spring Park Dairy, "one of the best dairies in Wisconsin," with 44 cows. As of 2009, Rev. Jenkins' great-grandson, Richard (Dick) Jenkins Pearson lived on part of the original farm at 5030 Lake Mendota Drive. He has photos of his father, Ralph Jenkins Pearson, as a little boy, taken in the living room of the Jenkins farmhouse. Since his father was born in 1896, these photos appear to have been taken around 1900.
In the early 1900s, Dick Pearson's grandmother, Adelia Jenkins, netted $800 for 800 feet of shoreline, 16 lots on the lake side and 16 lots on the street side, which became known as Spring Park. She sold the rest of the farm to the Warner Family. A Risser married a Warner and the house became the property of the Risser family in the early 1900s. The Rissers built a house next door and sold the Jenkins/Warner/Risser property approximately 1990. |
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