| Additional Information: | A 'site file' (High Cliff State Park) 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 State Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation.
Map Codes: 18/29 AND 13/23
L-Plan with segmental arch windows. Combined store and post office. Currently used as a museum.
Additional Comments, 2025:
Architecture:
The High Cliff General Store is a one-story brick building with a long rectangular plan and a gable roof with a stone foundation. Attached to the east elevation wall is a later-added frame one-and-one-half story ell added in 1945. This ell has clapboard siding and a gable roof, single-light sash windows, and a porch enclosed with sash windows and an entry door.
At the center of the main elevation there is a very tall entrance that was originally filled with a double wood door topped with a tall segmentally-arched two-light transom. In the 20th century, the entrance was altered with a wood and glass entry door and a wide sidelight topped with a four-light transom. The entrance is flanked by two four-over-four-light sashes. The side walls of the building are long and feature several openings, some that appear to be original segmentally-arched openings filled with four light sashes and others rectangular openings sitting under the eaves that are filled with vertical lights. A few openings have been altered and are filled with paired sashes. The rear elevation features a central entrance flanked by an original segmentally-arched opening filled with a sash window and a smaller altered segmentally-arched opening filled with a pair of sashes. The rear entrance is covered with a twentieth century shed-roofed overhand with square posts.
The building interior is divided into two sections. The front of the building is the old store and it has some of its historic features extant, including an open plan, plaster walls, a wainscot-covered ceiling and some old store shelving. The original floor was replaced in 2012 due to water damage. The store space has most recently been used as a museum. Behind this space is another room that was part office space and part residential space that attaches to the 1945 ell. The residence space originally had a kitchen, dining room, living room, pantry, and two bedrooms. This area, along with the original office space was remodeled with a replacement ceiling, wall panels and carpeting and was converted into one space and used as a nature center. Access to the second floor was enclosed for a restroom.
History:
Some research suggests that the building was initially constructed in 1855 for the Cook and Brown Lime Company and was used as a company store and offices until the twentieth century. In 1945, the ell was added for residential space for store owners, possibly when the building became privately owned. Additional research suggests that the building may not have been constructed as early as 1855 and not necessarily for Cook and Brown.
B. F. Carter started a brickyard and lime kiln at High Cliff, then known as Clifton, after he arrived in 1866 and may have built the building for his operation at that time. An 1874 map shows that B. F. Carter owned all of the land in the village and the lime works, not Cook and Brown, but in the History of Northern Wisconsin, published in 1881, it states that by 1881, B. F. Carter was in business with the Cook and Brown Lime Company. Cook and Brown started with Ossian Cook, who came to the Oshkosh area and opened brickyards and lime kilns with James Day in 1860, but not in High Cliff. In 1874, Day was replaced in the business by a man named Brown and the company was then known as Cook and Brown. More research is needed to find out when B. F. Carter merged with Cook and Brown and if the building was built by Carter or by Cook and Brown.
The building was used as a “company store” and office for the lime kiln and brickyard business in High Cliff. In the 20th century Cook and Brown merged with other companies to form the Western Lime and Cement Company. The residence addition was added in 1945 and may indicate the era when the store became privately owned as opposed to company-owned. Western Lime and Cement Company closed their High Cliff operations in 1956. In 1957, land from the lime works and the village was included with other land to form High Cliff State Park. The store was continued until 1969, mostly on a seasonal basis to serve park visitors and campers.
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