Property Record
CA. 1600 E SHORE DRIVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | |
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| Other Name: | Bay Beach Park |
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| Reference Number: | 36708 |
| Location (Address): | CA. 1600 E SHORE DRIVE |
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| County: | Brown |
| City: | Green Bay |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1909 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1986 |
| Historic Use: | bath house |
| Architectural Style: | Colonial Revival/Georgian Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | Very large three-part building with center block having two stories with a pedimented, gable roofed attic story surmounted by a fine, large octagonal cupola having an octagonal dome shaped roof upheld by eight Tuscan Order columns. The main block of the building has been resided in aluminum/vinyl siding and the original windows have been altered. The south or street facing facade has a semi-circular, flat-roofed entrance porch supported by six Tuscan Order columns with the center four arranged in two pairs. The north or lake facing facade has six large, two story tall Tuscan Order columns supporting pedimented portico which spans the full width of the center block. The main block also has corner pilasters on the north facade. The spreading side wings have combinaton gable and hip roofs and retain their original clapboard siding and screened windows. The extensive grounds have a number of small outbuildings, of which the pavillion in photo 78/08 is the most distinctive. Related buildings: two pavillions, one octagonal and one rectilinear (78/08). In 1909, Cusick and his partners built the Beaux-Arts Classical Bay View Beach Pavilion, crowned by a domed cupola. Clapboard walls enclosed dining rooms in the middle section, a roller-skating rink (long gone) in the west wing, and a dance hall in the east wing. Famous orchestras such as Tommy Dorsey's, Glenn Miller's, and Lawrence Welk's played at the dance hall over the years. In 1934, 100,000 people gathered before the pavilion to hear President Franklin Roosevelt commemorate the tercentennial of French explorer Jean Nicolet's landing in the Green Bay area. (FDR had also come to rally Wisconsin's Progressives and Democrats behind his ambitious New Deal agenda, sparking the beginning of a liberal coalition in the state.) Roosevelt spoke from a bunting-draped stage, set up under the colossal two-story portico facing the bay. The portico's smooth Tuscan columns, simple capitals, inset balcony (now gone), and broad triangular pediment made for a grand backdrop. On the opposite side of the building, a more modest one-story semicircular portico with coupled Doric columns shelters the double-door entry. Unfortunately, aluminum siding now clads the walls. |
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| Bibliographic References: | 2002 historic preservation award given by the Green Bay Historic Preservation Commission. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |