Property Record
327 W MILWAUKEE ST; 5 S HIGH ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | MONTEREY HOTEL |
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| Other Name: | MONTEREY HOTEL |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 26711 |
| Location (Address): | 327 W MILWAUKEE ST; 5 S HIGH ST |
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| County: | Rock |
| City: | Janesville |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1929 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1982 |
| Historic Use: | hotel/motel |
| Architectural Style: | Art Deco |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | West Milwaukee Street Historic District |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 5/17/1990 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 2/19/1990 |
| 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. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation-Public History. The current building was constructed on the site of the former Grand Hotel. Janesville’s earliest and most prestigious downtown area developed on the east side of the Rock River. But as the city grew in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, commercial development spilled over onto the west bank, where downtown continued to grow until the onset of the Depression. One of the last buildings built during this period of growth was also one of the largest: the six-story Monterey Hotel, notable for its terracotta ornament. Art Deco styling became popular in America after the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. Geometric ornament and strong vertical lines characterized the style. On this hotel’s exterior, horizontal bands of black terracotta tiles, trimmed with gold stripes, diamonds, and zigzags, frame the first story. Tiles layered in a stepped-back pattern embellish the main entrance, leading the eye upward. Above the entrance, and at the building’s corners, rise paired columns of windows, linked by decorative terracotta spandrels. But the true terracotta fantasy unfolds at the building’s top. There, each column of windows explodes into inverted ziggurat motifs, garnished with stylized shells, scrolls, and plumes. The hotel’s corner tower, in particular, is encrusted with terracotta details. With its deep-set niches and jagged crenelated parapet, it suggests the battlement of a medieval fortress. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) HISTORIC JANESVILLE, HERITAGE PRESERVATION ASSOCIATES, INC. MACDONALD AND MACK PARTNERSHIP, CITY OF JANESVILLE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, 1994. (B) City Directories, 1927, 1931. (C) Rock County Hist. Sites and buildings, page. 111. (D) Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |