| 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, Division of Historic Preservation-Public History.
2014-2015: Located within and a contributing property to the East Side Residential Historic District, this one-story, stucco-sheathed, late-Prairie School/Craftsman style house is built into the hill and topped with a flat roof lined with bracket trim. Featuring a brick foundation, this house has an entrance along N. 3rd Street that is topped with a flat-roof porch overhang supported by large wooden brackets; however, an open porch with short round columns set upon large square piers shelters a second entrance located at the northeast corner. A third doorway is located near the center of the north elevation, while a built-in, underground garage is located at the west end of the same façade. A one-story, enclosed porch extends from the rear of the home. Windows throughout the house are a combination of singly arranged and tripartite examples, the latter of which include an additional upper set of transom-like panes.
This house appears to have been built circa 1921 for Christian and Inga Wiger. Christian was born in River Falls in September 1872, the son of Nils and Elaine Wiger who immigrated to the United States from Norway in 1871. Following his education in the local schools, Christian was employed by the Omaha Railroad in River Falls, after which he moved to Minneapolis and worked for the Farmers’ State Bank. He returned to River Falls and was associated with the Bank of River Falls and, in 1896, moved to Ellsworth, where he started a bank. That same year he married Hermione Pratt. In 1897, Christian was elected cashier of the Farmers’ & Merchants’ State Bank in River Falls and, two years later, Hermione died. In 1906, he married Inga Olson and they had two sons, Nicholas and Burr. The Wigers resided in various locations in the city throughout their marriage and, in circa 1921, they built the subject house. Christian died on 28 September 1929 and was identified as associated with the following fraternal organizations: the Masons, Elks, Yeomen and Woodmen. Inga retained the property through 1930; however, by 1931, it had been purchased by Henry J. Elliott. Inga died in February 1945. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Tax Rolls, 1918, owner, JM Gunnison Estate ($500/land + $0/buildings), 1920, owner, CN Wiger ($500 + $200), no 1921 tax book, 1922, Wiger ($500 + $4500); Easton, History of the St. Croix Valley, Vol. 1: 634-35; “Chris Wiger is Victim of Gas in His Garage,” RFJ, 3 October 1929, 1/5; Inga’s death date was gleaned through cemetery information for Greenwood Cemetery in River Falls, Available online at www.ancestry.com, Accessed May 2015. Previous research indicated that the house was built by Frank D. Ensign; however, based on the home’s date of construction (from tax rolls), that would be impossible, as Ensign, who ran the local lumber year, died in May 1918. |
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