Property Record
FOX RIV SW OF COLLEGE AVE BRIDGE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | |
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| Other Name: | APPLETON LOWER DAM |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 38937 |
| Location (Address): | FOX RIV SW OF COLLEGE AVE BRIDGE |
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| County: | Outagamie |
| City: | Appleton |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1991 |
| Historic Use: | dam/lock |
| Architectural Style: | NA (unknown or not a building) |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Concrete |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Appleton Lock 4 Historic District |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 12/7/1993 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 4/10/1992 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: | Waterway Resources of the Lower Fox River |
| Additional Information: | Additional map codes are: 28/26 FCS 8/22. Additional photo codes are: FCS 8/22. This dam is a concrete structure with an overall length of 549 feet. Built in 1934-35, it is located adjacent to, and about 500 feet upriver of, the lock. The dam creates the pool that floods the canal in which Appleton lock 4 is located. It is generally oriented on a NE/SW axis. Anchored to the river's rock bottom, the dam consists of two sections. The southwestern section, the one that accounts for the greatest portion of the dam's length, is a 320 foot spillway. The spillway is twenty one feet wide, and fixes the maximum level of the pool the dam creates at 706.25 feet above sea level. [The head impounded by the dam matches the 7.6 foot left of the lock.] The northeastern portion of the dam is 229 feet, and contains nine sluiceways, each of which contains a fourteen by twenty foot, steel Tainter gate. The gates are operated by a "crab," a small electrically operated mechanism that moves from gate to gate on a track. The "crab" contains a wench, to which the chain on each end of the gate is attached. As the winch is activated, the chain is taken in or let out, and the height of the gate is adjusted acoordingly. A steel catwalk, which facilitates inspections and maintenance, extends the length of the dam. Placed atop the dam is a single story front gabled shed that was erected to shelter the electric "crab." Spanning the abutments adjacent to the first gate, the lift house is reached by the catwalk. It is clad with drop siding, roofed with asphalt shingles, and has walls bounded with pilaster strips. The single window in each side wall and the panelled door at the right of the lockside endwall have simple surrounds. A pair of heavy wooden doors in the opposite endwall swing out to allow passage of the "crab" to whichever gate must be adjusted. The need for a new dam was noted by the Corps of Engineers in 1933. Construction started in 1934 and was completed in 1935. Resurveyed December 2010; no visible changes. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, 1933: Extract - Report Upon the Improvement of Rivers and Harbors in the Milwaukee, Wis., District (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1933), 878. (B) Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, 1934: Extract - report Upon the Improvement of Rivers and Harbors in the Milwaukee, Wis., District (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1035), 1041. (C) Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, 1935: Extract - Report Upon the Improvement of Rivers and Harbors in the Milwaukee, Wis., District (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1936), 1184. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |