Property Record
4090 Main St
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 48403 |
| Location (Address): | 4090 Main St |
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| County: | Door |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Gibraltar |
| Unincorporated Community: | Fish Creek |
| Town: | 31 |
| Range: | 27 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 29 |
| Quarter Section: | |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: |
| Year Built: | 1937 |
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| Additions: | 1986 |
| Survey Date: | 19922014 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | English Revival Styles |
| Structural System: | Balloon Frame |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | George F. Spinti III; W.H. Veenendaal |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| Additional Information: | #650: 40/5,6,7. Architectural Description The Vits property, designed by Veenendahl and Spinti, consists of a main house [40-4], combination garage/guest house [40-7], boat/changing house [40-6], and a remnant of a stone fishing pond [40-5]. The main house consists of a side-gable main block, with side gable wings and wall dormers. Tudor in overall effect, the house walls are primarily stone, with vertical wood boards in some of the gable ends. Although some of the windows have been replaced, they were originally leaded-lozenge casement windows. The interior of the house is more tudor in effect than the exterior. The garage/guest house (originally servant's quarters) is a side gable building with a gable ell off the north elevatoin. The walls are stone on the first floor and vertical wood board on the second floor. The interior is more simple than the main house, and more summer cottage-y in effect than the main house. Six-over-six double-hung-sash windows are located on the second floor. The apartment is on the second floor above the first floor apartment. The boathouse is a small side gable building clad in wide wood board with vertical wood boards in the gable end. The gable roof is asphalt shingle. The windows are eight-over-eight double hung wood sash on the water side (north), six-over-six next to the door, and are high three-light windows on the south side of the main elevation. Architectural Significance The Vits family engaged an architect to design this home, giving it as much consideration as their urban home. Women and children spent summers in such houses, while fathers came up on weekends or as time would allow. This house has experienced few changes and is currently owned by the son of the original owner. Historical Background Hugo Vits built this house in 1926. Hugo L. Vits was associated with his father (Henry) and brothers (Albert and George) in the management of the Aluminum Goods Manufacturing Company. He was born 11 December, 1880 in Manitowoc County. His father Henry Vits entering the aluminum manufacturing business in 1898. The Aluminum Good Manufacturing Company was organized 1 January, 1908, and combined the Aluminum Manufacturing Company of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, the New Jersey Aluminum Company of Newark, New Jersey, and the Manitowoc Aluminum Novelty Company. In 1911 they constructed a fireproof plan in Manitowoc with produces novelties and cooking utensils.l Henry Vits died in age seventy-nine in 1921. Hugo's brother George, who had become president after Henry's death, died in 1933. Presumably, Hugo's position with the company was elevated after 1933. The Vits' commissioned George F. Spinti and W.F. Veenendaal, architects from Milwaukee, to design their house. Spinti and Veenendaal shared an office in 1937, but the length of thier collaboration is not known. As partners they also designed a house at 6561 Washington Circle, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, in 1938. Carl Oldenberg, of Bailey's Harbor, built the mansion. Oldenberg constructed oyther properties in Fish Creek. Historical Significance Women and children spent summers in such houses, while fathers came up on weekends or as time would allow. This house has experienced few changes and is currently owned by the son of the original owner. Resurveyed March 2014; no visible changes. 2014- "This 2-story Elizabethan Revival house [48403] was constructed in 1937 for the Hugo Vits family following a design by architects Walter Harry Veenendahl and George F. Spinti III. It is irregular in plan with stone walls and a side-gabled roof. The south elevation contains a dominant front-gabled entry bay with a central front door. The first story of the south elevation contains a bank of three 6-over-6 windows and several individual 6-over-6 windows. The southern roof slope contains a front-gabled wall dormer with a pair of 6-over-6 windows and two smaller dormers with individual multi-pane windows. A massive stone chimney extends through the gable end of the west elevation. The north elevation (facing the lake shore) features additional multi-pane window banks and gabled dormers. The 2-story Side Gabled garage [48405] was constructed in 1938. It is T-shaped in plan with stone veneer and vertical board siding and an asphalt-shingled gable roof. The south elevation contains three garage bays with overhead doors; above this in the south roof slope are three front-gabled dormers containing 6-over-6 windows." -"STH 42: Bluff Lane (Gibraltar) to Country Walk Dr (Sister Bay), WisDOT#4140-19-00, Prepared by Gail Klein, (2014). |
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| Bibliographic References: | A. Edward and Lois Schreiber, editors, Fish Creek Voices, An Oral History of a Door County Village, (Sister Bay, WI: Wm Caxton Ltd), 1990. B. Door County Almanak No. 5: Tourism, Resorts, Transportation (Sister Bay, WI: The Dragonsbreath Press), 1990. C. Falge, Dr. Louis, History of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Volume II (Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company) 1924. D. Wisconsin, Its History and Its People, 1634-1924. Volume III. (Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company) 1924. E. Wisconsin Necrology, volume 19, pp.173-175. F. Wisconsin Necrology, volume 33, pp.107-113. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |