Property Record
3436 STATE HIGHWAY 38
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | William Henry Gifford Family Farm |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 138900 |
| Location (Address): | 3436 STATE HIGHWAY 38 |
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| County: | Racine |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Caledonia |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 4 |
| Range: | 22 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 35 |
| Quarter Section: | SW |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: | NE |
| Year Built: | 1886 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2005 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Gabled Ell |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| Additional Information: | February 2001-This former farmstead consists of a two-and-one-half-story, cruciform gabled ell and three outbuildings. The circa-1886 residence is sheathed in clapboard and its roof is covered with asphalt shingles. The defining feature of this otherwise austere building is a large, circa-1990, open porch addition that wraps around the east, south and west facades. The porch is decorated with turned posts, a spindled balustrade and latticework. Other noticeable elements include a two-story, canted bay topped with a projecting gable on the east elevation and a modern deck extending from the north facade. Additionally, each gable is pierced by a double-hung sash situated within a round-arch opening topped with a raised hood. The building's other fenestration primarily consists of regularly spaced, one-over-one, double-hung sashes obscured by metal combination storm windows; many are flanked by wood shutters. With regard to the outbuildings, the primary structure is a circa-1880s, gabled dairy barn that is sheathed with metal. Its roof is covered with asphalt shingles and is pierced by a cupola. A shed-roof addition protrudes from the west elevation. The second building is a circa-1910s, ell-shaped, rusticated concrete block barn/granary. A circa-1916, poured concert silo with concrete cap is adjacent to the dairy barn's north endwall. In 1886, Cyrus Nichols sold what was then a 160-acre tract to William Henry Gifford. Born in 1866 in the Town of Caledonia, Gifford was known as a #28;progressive and innovative#29; farmer. According to a family history, he was the first in the area to test his cattle for tuberculosis, build a silo (original no longer extant) and construct a farmhouse (subject structure) with indoor plumping. Gifford and his wife Emeline raised four children - William Allen, Joseph, Esther and Harriet. In 1918, William Henry retired and turned the farm over to his two sons. Six years earlier, the two siblings had begun Gifford's Sanitary Milk Company, a small, home-delivery milk service that utilized production from the family herd. The company incorporated in 1923 and took the name of Progressive Dairy. At that time, William Allen, who occupied the subject farmhouse, concentrated on running the business while Joseph operated the family farm (in 1916, Joseph had constructed his own residence [6800 Northwestern Avenue/CTH K]). During William Allen's tenure as president of Progressive Dairy, the company grew to be come the largest locally held dairy processing and delivery company in Racine County. He served as president until his death in 1963. Today, the property is a private residence and no longer operates as a working farm. According to family records, this residence was built for William Henry Gifford around 1890. The carpenter who built the house was William Henry's brother, Albert Morris Gifford. The Gifford Farmhouse was the first in the community to have indoor plumbing. William Henry married Emeline Mosher of Mount Pleasant township in 1889. Emeline had come from New York with her parents in a covered wagon. William Henry was the son of William Gifford who moved from Cambridge, New York, in 1857. He had owned and operated a flax mill that was demolished by a fire. With the decline of the flax milling business and with land in New York selling for $100 an acre, he decided to accept the offer of Dr. Philip Morris, his wife's uncle, and purchased a 160-acre farm in Caledonia for the standard price of $35 per acre. In 1962 the same land sold for $1,000 an acre. Shortly before his death in 1888, William Gifford purchased the land adjoining his to the south from Reverend Cyrus Nichols. Nichols was the first Presbyterian minister in Racine. William Allen continued to live in the house with his wife and children until his death in 1963. Two years later his widow sold the house. The house was recognized by Preservation Racine in 2006 as a Century Building. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Grassroots of History, 1978, pp. 420-421. Plat maps 1899, 1899, 1903, and 1924. Preservation Racine Tour of Historic Places Guidebook, 2008. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |