| 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, State Historic Preservation Office.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
A BRICK, TWO-STORY HOUSE WITH A SLOPING ROOF THAT HAS A ONE-STORY ELL EXTENDING SOUTH OF THE MAIN STREET FACING GABLE STRUCTURE. STONE LINTELS AND SILLS, A DOUBLE DOOR FRONT ENTRANCE IN THE GABLE END OF THE MAIN STRUCTURE, SIX OVER SIX WINDOWS ON THE NORTH SIDE AND A FRONT PORCH ON THE ELL SUPPORTED BY SQUARE COLUMNS WITH DORIC CAPITALS ACCENT THE HOUSE. THERE ARE SEVERAL ADDITIONS AT THE REAR.
ONE OF THE SECOND OLDEST BRICK HOUSE IDENTIFIED IN THE SURVEY REMAINING IN PLATTEVILLE, THIS VERNACULAR HOUSE IS ARCHITECTURALLY SIGNIFICANT AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF EARLY BRICK RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE THAT HAS BEEN MAINTAINED FOR THE MOST PART IN ITS ORIGINAL STATE. IT WAS BUILT BETWEEN 1864 AND 1865.
Edward Davies (frequently misspelled as Davis) was born in Flintshire, North Wales on March 15, 1817. In the early 1840s, Davies relocated to Manchester, England and in about 1847, married Margaret Roberts; the couple had two children, Emma (born in 1848) and Robert (born in 1850). Shortly after Robert’s birth, the Davies family immigrated to the United States and settled in the growing community of Platteville where Davies spent four and a half years working in the plow shop of Joel Potter. During this time, young Robert Davies died (1851) and Edward and Mary Davies had three more children: Elizabeth (born in 1851), Adeline (born in 1854), and Edward Jr. (born in 1856).
By the mid-1850s, Edward Davies had established his own blacksmith shop on Mineral Street (no longer extant). On December 25, 1858, Margaret Davies died leaving her husband with four young children. Within a year, Edward Davies married Mary Jane Champion, an English immigrant from a local mining family. Born in about 1837 to Ann and Isaac Champion, Mary Jane Champion and her family arrived in the United States in 1848 and settled in Wisconsin’s lead mining region where Isaac found work as a miner.
In 1864 – about five years after Mary Champion and Edward Davies were married – Edward Davies purchased a lot at the corner of N. Second Street and E. Cedar Street for the construction of a new family home (the subject property). By 1880, the only Davies children still living at the family home were Elizabeth and Adeline. By the same time, Edward Jr. had joined his father in the blacksmith business (after which time, the business became known as Davies & Son). In 1892, Edward and Mary Davies relocated to a home on North Elm Street.
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