Property Record
END OF REIMANN RD
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | BRISBANE, WILLIAM HENRY, HOUSE |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 47458 |
| Location (Address): | END OF REIMANN RD |
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| County: | Iowa |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Arena |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 8 |
| Range: | 5 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 21 |
| Quarter Section: | SW |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: | NE |
| Year Built: | 1868 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1976 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Early Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Cut Stone |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Brisbane, William Henry, House |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 9/13/1990 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 7/31/1996 |
| 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, State Historic Preservation Office. A former planter from South Carolina's Sea Islands, William Brisbane came to live here in an enclave of Southerners during the early years of statehood. In 1835, having decided that slavery was immoral, he freed his slaves and moved to Ohio. By the early 1850s, he had become a nationally prominent abolitionist. At that time, he came to Wisconsin and co-founded the village of Arena. He returned to the South during the Civil War to serve President Abraham Lincoln’s administration in Union-occupied South Carolina. After the war, Brisbane came back to Arena and built this sturdy limestone dwelling. The building reflects Brisbane's regional roots. It is an I-house, a British-derived vernacular form that is rare in Wisconsin but was common in the South from the colonial era through the early twentieth century. Named for their tall, narrow side profile, I-houses are side-gabled, two or two and one-half stories tall, and two rooms wide but only one room deep--the South's mild climate making it unnecessary to mass rooms and desirable to promote cross-ventilation. Typical of early I-houses, the Brisbane House has steep roof pitches and lacks exterior ornament. The symmetrically arranged windows include unusual triple-hung sashes on the ground floor. Yellow-brick chimneys jut from each end of the tin-covered roof. A STONE, TWO AND A HALF-STORY HOUSE WITH STEEPLY-PITCHED GABLED ROOFS AND A NARROW FOOTPRINT. TWO ORIGINAL OUTBUILDINGS SURVIVE. THIS PROPERTY WAS BUILT BY EARLY SETTLER, INN OWNER AND AREA PROMOTER WILLIAM HENRY BRISBANE, WHO ALSO WAS A NATIONALLY RENOWNED ABOLITIONIST WRITER. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |