Property Record
305-307-309 STATE ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Hanchett Block |
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| Other Name: | HANCHETT'S HALL |
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| Reference Number: | 16401 |
| Location (Address): | 305-307-309 STATE ST |
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| County: | Rock |
| City: | Beloit |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1856 |
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| Additions: | 1900 |
| Survey Date: | 1977 |
| Historic Use: | opera house/concert hall |
| Architectural Style: | Commercial Vernacular |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | JAMES H HANCHETT |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Hanchett Block |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 3/20/1980 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | LINCOLN SPOKE HERE IN OCTOBER OF 1858. SEE ISF The Hanchett Block is a four-story Victorian commercial building facing west. The top two stories are occupied by Hanchett's Hall, an auditorium which retains a stamped metal ceiling with panels of intertwined garlands and a cove frieze of palmettos, now in poor condition. The west or State Street facade presents a four-story, six-bay front of cream brick painted gray with blue trim. Wide round-arched, one-over-one windows are spaced between brick pilasters, which intersect with string courses between the stories and which are surmounted by a simple but effective brick frieze, where corbelled brick supercapitals intersect with corbelled modillions. The facade dates from 1893-1904, according to photographic records. At that time, the original two-story windows (which can still be seen on the south facade) were remodeled, the projecting cornice removed, and pilasters added. The south facade, though heavily stuccoed and scored and painted to match the front, still retains the original two-story, round-arch Italianate windows which open from the auditorium. The middle window has a bullseye above the paired arched window frames, a vestige of the earlier elegance of the building. Alterations to the ground floor facade, interior damage to the hall, and general maintenance problems detract from the appearance of the building. (A) The Hanchett Block is of major local significance for its long association with Beloit business and social life. It served as a community center with social and political meetings. Called the "Republican rallying point in the years just preceding the war," it was the site of Rock County's first enlistment in the Civil War, in 1861, by the Beloit Guards. Falling into neglect in the late 1870s, its "paint and gilding" no longer "resplendent," it was extensively remodeled and refurbished about the turn of the century. It housed Beloit Business College, ca. 1904-09, and was concurrently the home of Beloit's YMCA, until 1915. Their rented quarters on the second and third floors included a gymnasium, showers, and a reading room, and also offered "socials, minstrel shows, circuses, and entertainment." It housed the Beloit Company L (organized 1900) of the First Wisconsin National Guard Infantry regiment, ca. 1922 through 1930. All of these latter activities occurred in the structure after it assumed its present external form. The original builder, James Hanchett (1812-1865), was known as a contractor and speculator. He was also the builder of both the Hanchett farmstead in 1857-58 (now Bartlett Memorial Museum, NRHP) and the first Beloit dam over the Rock River (1844), as well as the Broder Block (razed circa 1970), located kittycorner from the Hanchett Block. The Block remains the most significant structure associated with this important early Beloit businessman, and with this era of Beloit's commercial life. But, Hanchett's Hall is of broader historical significance as well. It is the most intact, though substantially altered, place where Lincoln spoke to the public in Wisconsin, and is Beloit's last known extant link with the Lincoln visit to Rock County on October 1 and 2, 1859. After speaking at the Wisconsin State Fair the previous evening, Lincoln travelled by train to Beloit. Arriving Saturday morning, he dined at the Bushnell House (razed by fire in 1968) and spoke against slavery to an enthusiastic crowd in Hanchett's Hall about 2:00 P.M. In his speech Lincoln attached the extension of slavery and the "public sovreignty" view of Stephen Douglas, and affirmed that the underlying principle of Republicanism was its hatred of slavery and its hatred of slavery and its opposition to its extension. The meeting closed with "three hearty cheers" for Lincoln. Hanchett's Hall was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in March, 1980. (A) |
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| Bibliographic References: | A. National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, 1980. B. 1879 HISTORY p. 630. C. Beloit Tax Rolls, RCHS. D. "Beloit, WI" CHICAGO MAGAZINE, March 1857. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |