| 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.
The Cobblestone House was begun in 1866 by Bradley C. Marcy (Marcey), a stonemason who had been born in New York and had emigrated to Wisconsin with his family while still a boy. The cobblestones used on the exterior of the building were gathered and brought to the site from the banks of the Eau Claire and Chippewa Rivers. The stone used in the back of the house and under the cobblestone veneer was locally quarried. The portions of the house first completed included the entrance hall, part of the dining room, a bedroom, the central hall, and a storage room. In 1876, Dr. Charles Hogeboom bought the house and added a wing including two parlors and a bedroom downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs. The stonework in this 1876 addition appears to have been done by the same mason who executed the 1866 portion of the house. Part of the dining room, a kitchen, and a downstairs bath were added sometime prior to 1907 when Mr. and Mrs. A.H. Shoemaker rented the house. They purchased it in 1909 and in 1910 replaced a narrow porch at the back of the house with the present larger one. The stone garage was built in 1916 and the L-shaped front porch was removed about 1952.
The roughly cross-shaped plan of the original house is topped by a steep gable roof and the added wing has a whipped roof. There is a variety of fenestration. The wing has window with stone frames and segmental stilted arch heads. The front door has a stone lintel and quoins. The second story windows have steeply pointed arches framed by stone slabs and quoins. The steep proportions and pointed arches give an effect of Gothic picturesqueness. The stone work itself is extremely fine. Smooth, matched stones are placed in neat horizontal rows with raked "U" shapes between them. The corner quoins are carefully cut, partially smoothed stone set out slightly from the plane of the wall.
Cobblestone architecture was imported into Wisconsin by settlers from upper New York State, where cobblestone construction was common. Most of the New Yorkers who came to Wisconsin settled in the southeastern counties and it is in these counties that almost all of Wisconsin's cobblestone buildings are located. The Cobblestone House in Eau Claire is the only known example of cobblestone architecture in northwestern Wisconsin. Another peculiarity of the Cobblestone House in Eau Claire is that it is constructed in the Gothic Revival Style rather than in the Greek Revival style which was by far the most common style for cobblestone buildings.
WING WAS ADDED IN 1876 AND THE GARAGE IN 1916 BY BRADLEY MARCH. EARLY IN THE 20TH CENTURY, JENNIE AND ARTHUR H. SHOEMAKER LIVED HERE.
2016- "Settlers from New York brought cobblestone architecture with them to southeastern Wisconsin. This house is the only example of cobblestone architecture in the Chippewa Valley. The setting of the pebbles in mortar seems more like the work of a jeweler than that of a mason.
Bradley Marcy, a stonemason and the original owner of the house, had these cobblestones gathered by wheelbarrow from the confluence of the Eau Claire and Chippewa Rivers. Dr. Charles Hogeboom added the left annex of the house, which appears to have been crafted by the same stonemason, in about 1879. An original L-shaped porch, which graced the front of the house, was removed in the 1950s."
-"Eau Claire Landmarks: Designated Historic Properties in Eau Claire, Wisconsin", Eau Claire Landmarks Commission, P.O. Box 5148, 2016. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) COBBLESTONE BUILDINGS OF WISCONSIN, P. 13.
(B) SELF-GUIDED TOUR OF SAWDUST CITY, 1977.
(C) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, V. 77, #4, SUMMER, 1994, P. 274.
"Then and Now" Eau Claire Landmarks Commission 2000 calendar.
Eau Claire Landmarks booklet published by the Landmarks Commission in 2002.` |
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