| Additional Information: | 2024 - English Barn. Side gabled two story barn with an asphalt shingle roof, vertical wood board siding, a lean-to addition, vinyl windows, and a parged stone foundation. Modern stables, a wood covered bridge, cross gabled workshop, gabled roof shed with metal roof, and a metal pole barn. Associated with AHI 124041.
This roughly 47-acre parcel includes an office (AHI 124041), a barn (AHI 124042), a stable, a workshop, a small covered bridge, and a collection of other buildings elsewhere on the property that are not visible from Maple Road and that were not investigated as part of this survey. The Fox River of Menomonee Falls starts a short distance north of the property and flows southwards through the central portion of this parcel. Transmission lines hang adjacent and parallel to the Fox River through this parcel.
The two-story, front gabled office building has an asphalt shingle roof, an interior brick chimney near the center of the roof, and metal siding. A one-story, enclosed porch or entry wing with gabled roof is located at the southern gabled end of the building. Windows appear to be casement types throughout. A long, concrete, accessibility ramp leads from a parking lot east of the building to the front door. A shed roof dormer near the center of the building’s east elevation is fitted with sliding glass doors that lead to a wooden switch-back staircase with metal railings. A stone foundation is visible below the southern three-fifths of the building’s first floor. An exposed basement wall, clad in matching metal siding, is visible under the northern two-fifths of the building.
The side gabled barn stands roughly three stories tall. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles, the exterior is clad with vertical board siding, and the foundation is parged stone. Windows visible from the public right-of-way in the eastern gabled end appear to be vinyl slider types. The northern elevation, which faces the office building, is approached by an earthen ramp that leads to a relatively modern garage door with a pedestrian door adjacent to that. The southern elevation has a lean-to shed roof along the entire length of the building that shelters the area just outside of the barn’s basement level.
A modern style stable building is located a short distance south of the barn. A historic aerial photograph taken in 2000, available at historicaerials.com, shows this stable under construction. The plan of the stable resembles three wedges of an octagonal ring with an outdoor concrete patio area at its center. A concrete strip extends from this patio area to the barn. The stable’s roof slopes down, away from the patio area to the rear of each wedge section. The building’s exterior is clad in vertical board siding above a concrete block foundation wall that is five courses high. Sliding metal doors are present on the northern and eastern walls. A horizontal ribbon of windows is present below the northern roofline, as are larger windows nearer ground level overlooking the patio area.
A cross-gabled workshop is located west of the office. Historic aerial photographs, available at historicaerials.com, indicate that this workshop was built in beginning sometime between 1963 and 1970, with substantial additions constructed in stages between 1976 and 1990. This workshop has a metal roof, wood panel siding. An office section at the eastern end of the building has stone veneer around the lower portion of the walls as well as sash windows (material unknown, their 6/6 appearance may be the result of a simulated divided light design).
A small, gabled, covered bridge is just visible southwest of the stable. Historic aerial photos available at historicaerials.com suggest that this wooden structure was built sometime after 2000, but all available earlier aerial photos (dating back to 1941) clearly show an uncovered bridge present. The bridge is too far from the public right-of-way to permit inspection.
The southwest corner of the parcel, near Menomonee Avenue, includes two metal pole barns. North of these and due west of the barn is another substantial building. None of these buildings were evaluated as part of this survey. Additionally, a separate parcel, apparently created from the northeastern corner of the larger property, has the large Curative Care Network, Inc. building which also provides adult day services. The Curative Care Network building was constructed circa 1990.
Plat maps for 1873, 1891, 1900, and 1922 show a house and 72 acres here belonging to Leonard and Martha Zink. The farm continued under the ownership of their two sons until the early 1960s.
Beginning around 1964, Vic Hellman purchased and adapted the property for use as a therapeutic horse-riding center where individuals with developmental disabilities could do meaningful work in an environment with minimal restrictions. The Ranch Community Services, home of the Ranch Riding Services, or more commonly just “The Ranch”, was notably one of Wisconsin’s oldest and largest therapeutic riding centers. Hellman was motivated to start The Ranch following the death of his developmentally disabled six-year-old son in the late 1950s. Some of the start-up money came from memorials set aside when his son died, and Hellman invested additional memorial funds when his 15-year-old daughter died in the late 1960s. Breeding and selling sheep and cows also generated revenue for The Ranch. In 1971, Hellman noted that job placement for boys who had developed work habits at The Ranch was 39 percent, compared to 23 percent attained by a large, sheltered workshop nearby that was serving a similar population.
In 1972, Victor Hellman was formally commended via Citation of the Legislature of the State of Wisconsin.
Hellman continued this work until his death in 1992. Newspaper mentions of The Ranch throughout 1993 indicate that work did not immediately cease following Hellman’s death but refer to this property as The Ranch-Maple Road Group Home. From 1994 through 2008, this property was referred to as Ranch Community Services.
Development of Vic Hellman’s “The Ranch” occurred during a time in which new services and programs were being introduced to address individual needs on a case-by-case basis for people with disabilities. These changes are part of a greater shift in the treatment of people with disabilities, a historic context which is recognized by the National Park Service. The Ranch is an example of evolving approaches for the treatment of developmentally disabled individuals in the area of health and medicine. The property remains in this use and its core resources, including the barn and office, retain integrity in terms of location, setting, materials, design, association, and feeling.
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| Bibliographic References: | 2024 - Historic Architectural Survey, Granville CPCN; Cities of Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Brookfield, Waukesha, and New Berlin; Villages of Butler, Lannon, Germantown, and Menomonee Falls; Milwaukee, Washington, and Waukesha Counties, Wisconsin - Stantec |
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