Property Record
3897 W OBSERVATORY RD
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Peter Paltz House |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 4793 |
| Location (Address): | 3897 W OBSERVATORY RD |
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| County: | Dane |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Cross Plains |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 7 |
| Range: | 7 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 21 |
| Quarter Section: | NE |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: | SW |
| Year Built: | |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1977 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Other Vernacular |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | Yes |
| Demolished Date: | 0 |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| 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. VACANT. As of 2001, only one wall was still standing; the rest of the building was rubble. The former Paltz home, a substantial cut stone dwelling constructed by one of the earliest German-born families (Peter and Mary Paltz reportedly came to Pine Bluff in 1848) to settle in the Town of Cross Plains, was torn down around the late 1980s. A wooden kitchen wing addition was removed before then. According to Audrey Zander, the widow of Theodore Zander, a man from Mineral Point obtained most of the stone from the house and presumably used it for restoration projects. She has a few pieces from the house in her garden. The Observatory Road property contains a house trailer that is rented out. Mrs. Zander's late husband was raised on the former Paltz/Zander farm and lived there 70 years ago, and she resided there less than a year after the couple was married (around 1959-1960). Ruth Zander Acker, the oldest of the Zander children and who also lived in the old Paltz homestead, recalls that the house had a living room with a wood burning stove, a small dining room plus a small kitchen on the first floor, and three bedrooms on the second floor. The house, she said, didn't have a full basement but rather a crawl space, about six steps down to a dirt-floored area with shelves for storing home canned goods. The kitchen area had three small windows and a sink. An old washing machine could be moved from a storage area to the kitchen when someone wanted to use it. Near the front door were two closets and a wood box that could be filled from outside and accessed from inside. There was no running water or plumbing in the house, but it did have a well. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Town of Cross Plains Architecture and History Inventory. October 2009. Prepared by Mary Jane Hamilton. Vera Riley, Cathy Fjelstad, and Ken Esser. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |