Property Record
537 MAIN ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | H.W. Landreth House |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 23328 |
| Location (Address): | 537 MAIN ST |
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| County: | Oconto |
| City: | Oconto |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1903 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 19782009 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Queen Anne |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
| Architect: | H.A. Foeller |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | West Main Street Historic District |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 5/14/1979 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. The site file also contains documentation and correspondence relating to Memorandum of Agreement stipulations as well as Determination of Eligibility documentation. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation-Public History. LAST LARGE HOUSE BUILT IN OCONTO. OVERHANGING BRACKETED RETURNED EAVES. LARGE ROUND ARCH BALCONY RECESS IN FRONT GABLE. BALCONY & FRONT GABLE W/HUGE SHINGLED BRACKETS. PORCH W/IONIC COLUMNS & SPINDLEWORK RAILING. POLYGONAL 2 STORY SIDE BAY W/BALUSTRADED PARAPET. Harry Landreth was an Oconto cannery owner; later owners included J.B. Chase, Oconto's mayor for fourteen years, and Darwin Ferris, an electrical contractor. The home is the only one in Oconto with a name, "Twilight." In 1903, H. W. Landreth, owner of a local cannery, and his wife Gertrude, a leader in the local Woman’s Club, built one of the finest houses in Oconto. Their two-and-one-half-story house combined medieval and classical forms to express a romantic architectural idiom now known as the “Free Classic” phase of the Queen Anne style, which marked a transition from the eclectic Victorian-era homes of the late-nineteenth century to the more formal Colonial Revival houses of the early twentieth. Queen Anne traits here include the juxtaposition of clapboard siding on the first floor and wood shingle cladding on the second, diamond-pane windows, and sashes with small upper lights over large bottom panes. The transition toward the Colonial Revival is evident in such classical elements as the one-story veranda supported by Ionic columns and the broad, semi-elliptical light piercing the front gable. |
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| Bibliographic References: | "LUMBER ERA OCONTO TOUR". OCONTO COUNTY REPORTER 6/5/1996. ABSTRACT. OCONTO COUNTY REPORTER, V. 13, 1969. Marinette Eagle Herald 9/13/1997. Historic Sites Reconnaissance Survey. May 2009. Prepared by Barbara Kooiman. West Main Street Historic District, Oconto, Wisconsin brochure, 1979. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. The Improvement Bulletin 11/14/1903. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |