Property Record
208 W MAIN ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Gillett High School |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 230605 |
| Location (Address): | 208 W MAIN ST |
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| County: | Oconto |
| City: | Gillett |
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| Year Built: | 1923 |
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| Additions: | 1962 1955 |
| Survey Date: | 2015 |
| Historic Use: | elementary, middle, jr.high, or high |
| Architectural Style: | Late Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | 2015 Gillett High School is a complex consisting of an original core building, constructed in 1923, that is surrounded by extensive additions including an east wing completed in 1955 and a library, gymnasium, classrooms, and offices added in 1962 . A recent secondary school addition extends off the rear. The two-story 1923 segment portion (see Figure 2) is two stories and built in the Collegiate Gothic style popular throughout Wisconsin in the early-twentieth century. The brick masonry building has a flat roof and displays a stone parapet, belt courses, sills and label molds, and east and west portals with aluminum replacement doors on its front (north) facade. Fenestration consists of replacement fixed lights and awnings; the upper panes of each opening have been blocked. Additional decorative features include patterned brickwork on the building’s front facade and west (side) elevation, and projecting two-story crenellated -box -bays towers that surround each portal entrance. The 1955 addition is one story with a sunken basement level and displays a flat roof with a simple metal cornice. The 1962 addition includes a low-pitch, side-gable gymnasium, a one-story metal canopy, and a brick entrance wall with modern, stainless steel letters that read, “Gillett Public School.” The secondary school addition has brick walls and a flat roof with plain metal coping. Before the 1923 building opened, all grades had attended Gillett Grade School on S. Elm Street, which began offering upper-level classes in 1909. Prior to that, students had traveled to Oconto Falls for high school. The mid-twentieth-century additions were driven by a greater proportion of the population attending high school, as well as the closure of smaller rural schools that, in turn, sent their students to Gillett. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Marie Darrow, History of Gillett, 1856-1976 (Gillett, Wis.: Gillett Public Library, 1976), 27-28. “Oconto County, Wisconsin: Gillett Schools,” Oconto County WIGenWeb Project, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wioconto/SchoolsGillett.htm. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |