| Additional Information: | This two-story brick building is characterized by a facade covered by vertical metal siding with a screen panel across the lower part of the upper story. A metal canopy extends over the storefront. A contemporary storefront with a pseudo-brick apron and a recessed elevated entrance with a door to the upper story on its north end is located on the lower story of the facade.
This commercial building has been altered completely by the replacement of its original facade and by the addition of the present metal front in 1974. This combination retail building and social hall originally exhibited a three-bay red brick facade featuring a bay window in the center bay of the upper facade and a storefront on the lower story exhibiting an arrangement similar to the present front. The present facade was constructed in 1971. This brick building was repaired after fires in 1896 and 1900 caused minor damage.
This building, built in 1895 for the Women's Christian Temperance Union, replaced an earlier frame saloon building owned by the Gund Brewery on the site, which William Palmer purchased for them in 1892. This Queen Anne influenced building was designed by local architect Frank D. Foote and the stone work was done by James H. Brook. Originally, this building housed the W.C. T.U. Temple on the second floor and retail space on the first floor that was rented initially to the jeweler L.A. Herrick. The W.C.T.U restaurant established in the basement of the building opened under the management of Guy Poole.
The W.C.T.U. Temple building does not meet the criteria of the NRHP for architectural significance because the historic architectural character of this building has been completely eliminated by the new facade added in 1974. As a result this building does not contribute to the historic character of the Water Street Commercial Historic District.
In 1895, the W.C.T.U. building was erected, and the Women's Christain Temperance Movement owned the building and occupied the second floor of the structure. The upper floor was used for meetings of the society and the basement was used as a temperance restaurant. The basement of the building was used for a W.C.T.U. restaurant. On the first floor was at first L.A. Herrick's Jewelry store and then there were a series of millinery shops, run by Mrs. C.E. Damman (1897), Miss Kate Sullivan (1903), and Margaret Peacock (1916).
By the 1890s and into the 1910s, the prohibitionist movement swept into Sparta with vigor. Sparta's W.C.T.U. exerted a good deal of force in Sparta. In 1895, they purchased a former saloon on South Water Street, tore it down, and built the present-day building. By 1899, there were 160 members in the group, which at the time, reportedly was the largest W.C.T.U organization in the state of Wisconsin.
The W.C.T.U. building gains its local historical significance under Criterion A in association with the topic Temperance Movements under Sparta's Social and Political Theme. This building represents the struggle over prohibiting alcohol consumption in the community. In therefore gains historical significance from 1895 and the erection of the building to an undetermined date when the W.C.T.U. faded from Sparta's history. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) City of Sparta, WI, Community Development Office, Building Permit File.
(B) Monroe County Democrat "Sparta-Up-To-Date," June 30, 1899:44, photograph.
(C) Sparta Herald March 12, 1895; April 16, 1895; June 4, 1895; Aug. 13, 1895; Sept. 17, 1895; April 4, 1896; April 14, 1896; March 20, 1900; Sept. 30, 1974.
(D) Sanborn-Perris Insurance Map 1884, 1889, 1894, 1900, 1911, 1922, 1931.
(E) City of Sparta Property Tax Rolls, 1870-1940.
(F) Annual Directory of Sparta, Wisconsin. Vol. 1. Chicago: Interstate Directory Co., 1897.
(G) Sparta City Directory, 1903-1904. Sparta: R.C. Glover, Publisher, 1904.
(H) City Directory of the City of Sparta, Wisconsin. Sparta: compiled and published by E.B. Bell, 1916.
(I) Koehler, Lyle P., From Frontier Settlement to Self-Conscious American Community: A History of One Rural Village (Sparta, Wisconsin) in the Nineteenth Century. Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphic, Inc., 1977, pp. 37, 47, 54-55.
(J) City of Sparta Tax Records, 1870-1930. |
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